


I Will Stay Until The Morning Comes

by WakingNightmares



Series: Let It All Come Crashing Down [2]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Angst, F/M, Good Friend Stiles Stilinski, Hurt/Comfort, Kidnapping, Lydia Martin & Theo Raeken friendship, M/M, Medical Experimentation, Nightmares, Non-Consensual Body Modification, Past Torture, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-02
Updated: 2019-09-08
Packaged: 2020-02-15 22:54:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 9
Words: 21,304
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18678976
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WakingNightmares/pseuds/WakingNightmares
Summary: Theo had been increasingly persistent, constantly bringing up classes whenever he could, particularly whenever Melissa was around; she’d taken to pestering Scott about it too, and the Alpha was quickly running out of believable excuses.“What about your plans?” He asked finally, grabbing the waffle Theo had just set on the table. “What are you doing with your life?”





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> So this story picks up about two months after the events of Waiting For The Fall .
> 
> As always, a big shout-out and thank you to the lovely DemonzDust for being my beta. Go check out her stuff.

Scott woke to the overpowering scent of bacon and —somewhat weaker—waffles and syrup. Only half awake, he crawled out of bed, slipped on a pair of gym shorts, and followed the smell downstairs.

 

When he turned into the kitchen, he saw Theo munching on a piece of bacon as he slid the rest of it from the pan to a plate on the table.

 

“Smells good,” Scott said appreciatively, reaching for a piece.

 

“Make sure you save some for your mom,” Theo retorted with an eye roll as he turned back towards the waffle maker. “She worked a double last night, and since we were too busy to take her dinner, I guarantee you she didn’t eat.”

 

“We were running around the Preserve all night.” Scott gave Theo his best puppy dog eyes.  “We didn’t eat either.”

 

“Your mom has goals, and plans for her life,” Theo countered. “How ‘bout you? Classes start next month.”

 

Scott sighed as he sat down; while his appetite wasn’t gone —it seemed like nothing could actually _kill_ his appetite—he started debating whether or not he actually wanted to stick around and eat.

 

Theo had been increasingly persistent, constantly bringing up classes whenever he could, particularly whenever Melissa was around; she’d taken to pestering him about it too, leaving him quickly running out of believable excuses.

 

“What about _your_ plans?” He asked finally, grabbing the waffle Theo had just set on the table. “What are you doing with _your_ life?”

 

Theo shrugged easily. “Thinking about getting my GED, then going to UC Davis for Biology; they have one of the best physical sciences departments on the West Coast. Dunno if they can actually teach me anything I don’t already know, though,” He added with a smirk.

 

“Uh huh. That’s the _only_ reason you’re thinking Davis?”

 

“Well, if I’m being totally honest, Scott, the thought did occur to me maybe if I went, I could drag you kicking and screaming with me,” Theo said lazily, sitting down at the table. “So that’s a thing. In all seriousness, though, I thought… well, I’ve still got the Dread Doctors money, we could probably rent a place, like an apartment or something. Hell, I could probably pay for both of our tuitions outright,” He said thoughtfully.

 

“You’re not paying for my tuition, Theo,” Scott said forcefully, and he could see Theo’s surprised look. Moderating his tone, he continued, “I know you want to help, and I appreciate it, I really do, but… “

 

“But what? It’s not like we’re stealing it, and we both know that after everything they did to you and the Pack, it’s not like you don’t deserve it,” Theo said pointedly.

 

“That’s not the point, Theo,” Scott said with a sigh, tired of rehashing the same argument. “Firstly, that money isn’t ‘limitless’; I know you said they had millions, but you can’t be sure of that. I know you want to help, and I know you’ve been paying for whatever you can without my mom catching you, but if you keep spending it all, you won’t have anything left when you need it. Besides, it’s _your_ money. Just because you have a lot of it doesn’t mean you have to pay for everything for everyone.”

He could see Theo trying to understand his logic, and he fought the urge to sigh. For as smart as Theo was, he didn’t seem to have the most basic understanding of what Melissa liked to call ‘life skills’; he had no real grasp of finances, or other basic ‘adulting’ skills. He didn’t understand Melissa having to make car payments, or the mortgage, nor did he seem to have any real interest in learning.

 

“But —”

 

“No,” Scott said firmly. “Look, I don’t know if I’ll go to college. Maybe I’ll just hang around here —it’s not like Deaton needs me to have my degree to help him out. But even if I was going, I wouldn’t let you pay for everything.” He paused for a moment, as he heard Melissa making her way up the walk. By the way Theo quirked his head towards the door, he knew the Chimera could hear her as well. “Look, just… let’s not argue about it, alright? Like you said, Mom worked a double, and she probably just wants to relax.”

 

After a moment’s hesitation, Theo nodded. He stood, and, with practiced ease, started filling a plate full of food. Setting it down at the head of the table as Melissa rounded the corner into the kitchen.

 

“Oh my god, Theo, you’re amazing,” She said with a smile, sliding into the chair. “Seriously, this is just what I needed.”

 

“Long night, mom?” Scott asked.

 

“Accident out on the highway. Bunch of drunk college kids wrapped their car around a tree. They’re all gonna make it, but it was touch and go for a bit,” She said before shoving a large bite of waffle in her mouth. “Spent six hours in surgery rearranging a kid’s insides. Had to remove five and a half feet of his small intestine.”

 

Scott blinked. “Wow… That’s a lot. He’s gonna be okay?”

 

“That’s nothing,” Theo said casually. “Small intestine is usually about twenty two, twenty three foot long. You can lose about ten feet, depending on different factors, before you’ve gotta worry. Even then, with the right doctors doing the surgery, you can survive with about ten foot.”

 

Scott saw Melissa’s eyes narrow a bit, and Scott felt a chill go up his spine. He knew she was wondering -as he was -how exactly Theo knew that tidbit of information.

 

Found himself wondering how much of Theo’s small intestine he had left.

Melissa’s voice yanked Scott out of his dark thoughts, as she replied, “That’s right, Theo. But yes, he’ll be fine, Scott. Mhh, Theo, this is amazing. You’re getting good at this,” She added appreciatively. “The waffles are delicious.”

 

Theo gave her a surprisingly shy smile. “They’re banana french toast waffles; I found the recipe online.”

 

Scott ducked his head to hide his grin. Theo always got embarrassed and awkward whenever Melissa offered him praise, particularly when it came to him cooking —something the Chimera had started doing regularly. Both Scott and Melissa would come home to home cooked meals of things like fried chicken, chicken scallopini, and from-scratch Hungarian stroganoff. In the mornings, there was always some new concoction on waffles, french toast, or pancakes on the table before Scott woke up.

 

Mostly because Theo was always up before Scott woke, or Melissa got home. Scott was amazed that he was quiet enough to get up, get a shower, get dressed, and cook a meal without waking Scott up, but somehow, he did it every morning. Scott was pretty sure, at first, it’d started as a way for Theo to ‘earn his keep’, one of the many things he’d started doing around the house. But lately, it seemed to be something he actually enjoyed. He always seemed most at ease while blitzing around the kitchen, something in the oven, and something on the stove top.

 

“You should go to cooking school,” Melissa said, pointing at Theo with her fork. “You’re really good at this.”

 

Theo scoffed. “Nah. It’s just something I do for fun. It’s relaxing,” He said easily as he stood, grabbing Melissa and Scott’s empty plates, and taking them to the sink. “There’s leftover meatloaf in the fridge for dinner tonight; we’ll be gone before you wake up.”

 

Melissa frowned. “Gone? Gone where?”

 

“Santa Barbara.”

 

Scott nodded as he pushed himself to his feet. “Yeah. Derek got a message from the pack there, asking for some help. They didn’t say what was up, but he asked us to run down and see if we could help ‘em out.”

 

Melissa nodded as she leaned back in her chair. “Alright. Keep me updated?”

 

“We will,” Scott said with a reassuring smile as Theo grabbed their backpacks they’d packed last night. “Chris is gonna stay the night tonight, and the Sheriff is gonna stop by after school just to make sure everything’s okay. We should be back by tomorrow night at the latest.”

 

“Hey, you both be careful, okay? That means you too, Theo,” She said sternly, with a hard look. “I don’t want to do surgery on my coffee table again.”

 

Theo nodded. “Don’t worry, we’ll be fine. I’ll have Scott text you when we get there.”

 

 

~* * * * * * * * *~

 

 

“Let me know if you want me to drive.”

 

Theo scoffed, giving Scott a faux-disgusted look —a look that the Alpha ignored, staring at the large, dark bags under the Chimera’s eyes, the drawn and pinched look on his face.

 

“Like I’d let you drive my truck.”

 

“I just figured since you didn’t sleep much last night, I’d make the offer.”

 

Theo narrowed his eyes at him.

 

“Werewolf hearing.” Scott shrugged.

 

“Sorry.”

 

Scott rolled his eyes. “You had a nightmare, Theo; it’s not something you have to be sorry for. I just meant if you’re too tired to drive, I can, and you can get some sleep.”

 

Theo was quiet for a few minutes, minutes that seemed to drag out, before the other boy spoke again.

 

“No offense, and it’s not you, but I wouldn’t be able to sleep anyways.” At Scott’s questioning look, Theo gave him a wry grin. “I’m told I have control issues.”

 

Scott nodded, and let the issue go. The fact that Theo had —in his own, sardonic way —admitted that he wouldn’t be able to relax enough to sleep was a huge improvement. In the last two months, Theo had been hesitantly trying to at least let Scott and Melissa know when something was bothering him.

 

Even if he passed it off as a joke.

 

Baby steps.

 

“So does Derek have, like, a werewolf hotline number or something?”

 

Startled from his thoughts, Scott jumped a bit, turning to give Theo a quizzical look.

 

“I mean, it seems like he knows —or at least knows of —every pack in Cali. And this…”

 

“Dana.”

 

“Dana. This Dana knows him well enough to call him for help. Even if he can’t ever be bothered to actually pick up a damn phone,” Theo added with an eye roll.

 

“I think it was ‘cause of his mom. Derek’s a born wolf,” Scott explained. “Deaton, and Peter say his mom,Talia, was pretty famous. Before the fire, a lot of people came to her for help, or advice.”

 

“How big was the pack?”

 

“Before the fire? I think Derek said there were thirty or forty wolves, and about twenty humans.”

 

Theo whistled. “Damn. So… now that Talia’s gone, everybody calls Derek?”

 

Scott hesitated for a moment.

 

“I think it’s more that uh… Derek knows me,” He said, feeling his face warming a bit in embarrassment. When he looked back at the Chimera, his face was stony, and Scott sighed. “Theo, I’m a True Alpha. I know you don’t like it, but this is my life. This is _always_ going to be my life. And before you say it, yes, I know everybody else left. I know that it’s just me. But you know what? I don’t care. I don’t know if it’s part of being a True Alpha or not,” He admitted, “But I do know that I’m not going to stop. As long as there’s someone who needs help, I’m gonna help. If that means that I keep doing this ‘til I’m old and grey, then so be it. “

 

“It’s not ‘just’ you.” Theo’s voice was quiet, his gaze still on the road. “I think it’s stupid, and idiotic, but… If that’s what you want, I’ll be there. It’s probably gonna get us both killed,” He added with an eye roll. “But uh… I’m with you ‘til the end of the line.”

 

Scott couldn’t help but snort. One of the things they’d started doing on Saturdays —Melissa’s only consistent day off —was catch Theo up on all the movies he’d missed while growing up with the Dread Doctors. He’d taken to the new Marvel movies like a kid with candy; he’d already told Scott —in no uncertain terms —that come May, they were going to go see the new Avengers: Ultron movie come hell or high water.

 

“I swear if you get captured, and turned into a super-secret assassin with a metal arm, I’ll kill you myself,” Scott said with a chuckle.

 

Theo gave him a sly grin. "C'mon, we both know I'm the Natasha to your Steve Rogers."

 

Scott rolled his eyes as he glanced out the window, a comfortable silence filling the truck as they continued south.

 

 


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am incredibly sorry about the long wait, folks; things have been ridiculously crazy in my house for the past month. Hopefully regular updates will be coming soon, but I can't make any promises. But this is an extra long update, so... Yay?
> 
> Thank you again to the amazing Demonzdust for beta'ing!

“Something’s not right.”

Scott glanced over at Theo. The Chimera was clearly on edge, muscles tensed as they stared down at the building across the street.

It had been Theo who recommended scouting the place before charging in; Theo who had noticed that —for a supposedly decent sized pack —there were no guards, no wolves on the perimeter, nothing. Calls to the number Derek had given them went unanswered.

So they were hunched over on the roof across the street from the warehouse that Derek said housed the Santa Barbara pack.

“Well, we’re not gonna figure anything out standing here,” Scott pointed out, although he didn’t move from his spot. “Trap or not, this ‘Dana’ needed help badly enough to call Derek.”

“Not to mention we wasted almost fifty bucks, and five hours in gas to drive down here,” Theo added, almost lazily as his eyes moved back and forth over the building. He was close enough to Scott that their elbows were touching, their voices quiet.. “Gonna be pissed if nobody’s home.”

Scott glanced over at Theo. In the two months he’d lived with the McCalls, he’d become more relaxed, more at ease. He’d stopped looking over his shoulder every moment, he’d stopped narrowing his eyes any time anyone got too close. But from the moment they’d parked the truck in Santa Barbara, a startling change had taken hold of him. 

Now, he was… different. He didn’t walk so much as he…  _ glided _ , every movement precise, eyes watching every corner. Scott knew he was prepping for a fight, even though they had no reason to believe one was coming.

To be honest, it was a bit nerve-wracking; Scott could feel himself getting twitchy and suspicious just  _ watching  _ Theo.

“I think we should just go in,” He said finally, pushing himself to his feet, shaking his shoulders a bit. At Theo’s look, he rolled his eyes. “Either it’s a trap, or it’s not, Theo; either way, there could be people in there who need our help.”

Theo shrugged as he stood. “Your call. Best entry point is that window,” He said, pointing towards a window towards the east side of the building. “Looks like it leads into a bathroom; shouldn’t be anybody in there, and if we’re quiet, we should be able to waltz right in.”

“Which could give a pack of two dozen werewolves a heart attack. Especially if they’re already on edge,” Scott pointed out.

Theo snorted. “Scott, if there were two dozen werewolves in there, one of them would’ve already spotted us. Either they ran, or they’re dead. Only thing likely to be in there is bodies.”

“Then we could just go in the front door,” Scott pointed out, more than a little taken aback by Theo’s casualness about the situation.

“Unless the hunters are waiting for us,” Theo said pointedly. “I don’t know about you, but I’m not really up to getting shot tonight.”

Scott hesitated for a moment, before nodding. “Alright. Window it is.”

He couldn’t help but admire Theo’s gracefulness, as he watched the Chimera basically parkour his way down off the roof, keeping to the shadows of the alley. While being a werewolf gave Scott some extra grace, he still stumbled a few times, barely keeping his footing as he went down; next to Theo, he knew he looked like a clumsy idiot.

The smirk Theo gave him confirmed it. But the smirk quickly vanished, as Theo took another look down both sides of the street, before darting across. Scott followed, keeping low as they snuck over to the window they’d chosen as their entry point.

Scott boosted Theo up, and the Chimera shimmied inside. A moment later, he helped Scott up.

As soon as Scott stepped foot in the tiny bathroom, the scent of blood filled his nose. Theo gave him a quick nod, before silently pulling open the door.

He had been bracing himself for something awful; there was no mistaking the smell of blood and death in the air. But he wasn’t expecting the sheer carnage of the sight that greeted him in the main section of the warehouse.

The Santa Barbara pack had put up a hard fight; they were scattered around the large room, bodies littered with bullets, dried blood hardening on their claws. Large pools of blood were everywhere, and claw marks and bullet holes riddled the floor, ceilings, and pillars.

Scott could feel the vomit rising in his throat as he stared down at one of the bodies. She couldn’t have been much older than fourteen or fifteen, her clouded eyes staring up at him in accusation, dozens of holes in her small little body.

“Scott.”

Scott looked up at Theo, who was staring at him unreadably.

“There’s nothing you could have done. These people died last night at the latest; even if we had left the second Derek called us, we wouldn’t have been in time to save them. This  _ isn’t  _ your fault.”

Scott couldn’t bring himself to respond to that; they both knew that was a lie. Monroe was Scott’s problem to fix, Scott’s problem to deal with, and he’d failed… repeatedly. If he had dealt with Monroe in Beacon Hills, the Santa Barbara pack would still be alive.

“Hey! Are you listening to me?!” The anger in Theo’s voice brought Scott out of his reverie, and he stared at the Chimera in shock. Theo walked up to him, practically nose to nose. Scott took a step back, startled at the sudden closeness, but Theo took another step forward.  Despite himself, despite the situation, Scott couldn’t help but be painfully aware of the lack of space between them. “This. Isn’t. Your. Fault. No part of this is your fault, you understand?  _ Monroe  _ did this.  _ Monroe  _ killed these people. She’s the bad guy here.”

“Theo, I —”

Scott stopped abruptly, as the soft, almost imperceptible sound of a sneaker scuffing against the floor was heard. He cut his eyes back towards Theo, who gave him a small nod, and disappeared around a stack of crates.

Scott moved directly towards the sound, keeping his movements slow, hands in front of him in a non-threatening manner.

“Hello? We’re not here to hurt you. Derek Hale sent us to check after he got a call from Dana?” He called out, circling around an old car towards the sound of the noise.

He barely heard the shuffling movement as he rounded the side, and he wasn’t surprised to see it empty.

“Listen, we just want to help. We’re… we’re werewolves too,” He said pleadingly. “We don’t want to hurt you.”

A few seconds later, he heard a sharp clang, like metal on metal, and a moment later he heard Theo curse.

“Agh! Goddammit, will you stop?!”

Instantly, Scott slid over the car, and spotted Theo holding a small boy, who was struggling wildly, Theo’s arms pinned around him. He could see the blood running down from the bite wound on Theo’s hand.

“Hey, hey, hey, it’s alright!” Scott said soothingly as he approached. “Theo, let him go.”

“What?! Little shit bit me!”

“Let him go.”

With a muttered curse, Theo released the boy, taking a step back. The kid did the same thing, eyeing them both wildly.

“Who are you?” He demanded, his voice wavering. “What’re you doing here?”

“Derek Hale sent us. Your Alpha called him, said you guys might need some help,” Scott said gently.

The boy’s bottom lip began to quiver slightly, and he looked around the room with tear filled eyes.

“Yeah, we did,” He said softly.

Scott could feel his heart break as the kid stared around at the remains of his pack. “You got family we can call?”

The boy shook his head, and a guilty look came over his face, as the tears in his eyes started welling over. “I… No, I don’t… I mean… Dana was all I had.”

Theo glanced over at Scott. “He got the bite; he wasn’t born like this,” H e said quietly, moving away from the boy and closer to Scott.

Scott gave him a small nod, and stepped away from him, towards the skittish boy. “What’s your name?”

“Johnathan.”

“Alright, Jonathan. Let’s get you out of here, okay?”

“But…” Johnathan looked around at the bodies, his face torn.

“Not happening, kid.” Theo interjected, shaking his head slowly.  “The dead are dead, and we can’t wait around for the cops or hunters. C’mon.”

 

***********

 

Scott allowed Theo to pay for a hotel room; the look in the Chimera’s eyes had kept Scott from saying anything when he’d whipped out his debit card. Since leaving the warehouse, Theo seemed to be riding the edge of his temper. To most, his face probably didn’t look much different than normal. Scott, however, could see the slight tightness around the corners of his eyes, the barely perceptible downturn of his lips. He could see the tense muscles as Theo’s hands clenched tight enough around the steering wheel of the truck to turn his knuckles white.

He knew better than to comment though; he’d learned in the two months Theo had been living with him that the Chimera would talk when he was ready. Prying would only make his agitation worse.

So he remained silent as they walked towards their room, letting Theo unlock the door. 

Once inside, Theo motioned for the kid to sit on the bed.

“Where are you hurt?” Scott asked quietly.

The kid glared, standing by the edge of the bed. “I’m fine.”

“You’re not fine,” Theo said with a snort. “Sit down.”

“I’m a werewolf. Super healing,” the kid said disdainfully, and Scott couldn’t keep his amused snort in, the irony of Theo dealing with the same thing he told Melissa too good to pass up.

“Then why are you limping?” Theo asked casually, although he cast a dark look over at Scott.

Jonathan shuffled his feet uncomfortably. “M’fine. Nothing you can help with anyways.”

Theo shrugged as he sat down in a chair. “Alright, your choice. Take your shoes off, get comfy, and we’ll figure out a plan.”

“Theo,” Scott chided lightly. When Theo turned towards him, Scott cut his eyes towards the boy sitting on the bed. “He’s probably starving. Hey, John, you hungry?”

John glanced up unsurely, his face hesitant. “Don’t you wanna know what happened?”

Scott gave the boy a soft smile. “Of course we do. But I figure you’ve gotta be pretty hungry, right?”

John clearly hesitated, looking back and forth between the two older boys.

After a few seconds, Theo shrugged. “Obviously we want to know what happened. But honestly… half hour’s not gonna change anything.”

“But… It was my fault.”

“I really doubt that,” Scott said gently, sitting on the bed opposite of him.

“It was!” John said angrily. “I… The hunters, they… They caught me. While I was riding my bike. They…” He swiped at the tears in his eyes angrily. “They did…  _ things _ . They… they hurt me. They kept asking me where Dana was, where the pack was, and I… I told them. I tried to be strong, like Dana’s always saying, but… it hurt.”

“I’m sure you tried your best,” Scott said soothingly, leaning forward. “It wasn’t your fault.”

“It was! My best wasn’t good enough! Dana or Tyrell wouldn’t have told them. But I just… I just wanted it to stop, you know?”

“When did they catch you?” Theo asked, and Scott couldn’t resist the glare he sent towards the Chimera. The boy was clearly traumatized, feeling guilty over something he had no control over, and Theo was just going to charge ahead anyways.

“Yesterday, just before lunch. Dana… she said she didn’t want us leaving the warehouse, but... I went to Jimmy Joe’s for pizza,” Danny said quietly.

Theo looked over at Scott. “So after she called Derek then. She must’ve known they were in town, so she told everyone to stay close.”

“So why wasn’t she ready for them?” Scott asked. “If she knew they were coming… Twenty werewolves versus even two or three times that many Hunters would have left the werewolves on top. John, do you know how they got into the warehouse? What happened when you got there?”

“ _ I  _ happened,,” John said quietly, pulling his feet up on the bed, and hugging his knees. “The lady with the scar on her neck… they took me to the warehouse, and told Dana if she didn’t give herself up, they’d kill me. Dana said…she said they were bluffing, that even hunters wouldn’t hurt a kid. But she…the scarred lady, she stuck me with a needle filled with this purple stuff that… it was so cold, it felt like it was burning.. Told Dana next time she’d stick me with enough to kill me.”

“So Dana gave herself up?” Scott asked softly, going over to sit next to the boy on the bed.

The boy looked up at him, tears streaming down his cheeks. “I… I don’t know. I can’t remember. There was… screaming, and gunshots, but… The only thing I remember after that is waking up in the cubby below the warehouse. That’s when I heard you guys....”

Theo sighed, leaning forward in the chair, elbows on his knees. “Look… John. I know you’re feeling like shit right now. Like all this was your fault. If you hadn’t gone out, if you hadn’t gotten captured, if you had been stronger, if you had held out longer, maybe things would’ve been different. But it happened, it’s done, and there’s not a damn thing you can do about it now. All you can do is keep going. It’s what Dana would’ve wanted. She wouldn’t want you to sit there, curled up in a little ball, crying about how you messed up. She’d want you to make it right. So tonight… yeah, eat some pizza, cry yourself to sleep. Nobody’s gonna think any less of you. But tomorrow? Tomorrow, you get up, wipe your face, and keep moving, alright?”

John nodded hesitantly. Theo gave him a small, tired smile, as he stood, moving over to ruffle the kid’s hair. Then he moved over towards Scott, leaning down towards him.

“I’m gonna take a look around, make sure nobody followed us. I’ll be back.”

Before Scott could open his mouth to tell him that was a horrible idea, Theo was already gone.

Scott looked down, to see John sniffling, rubbing his face with his sleeves. He sighed quietly, and wrapped his arm around the young boy.

“Hey… None of this was your fault,” He said softly. “I know it’s all… everything’s crazy right now, but we’ll get it all figured out. We’ll find a place for you to stay,” He said firmly.

John glanced up at him, his eyes hopeful, but guarded. “Like… a home? Or…” His voice trailed off unsurely.

Scott gave him a small smile. “Homes aren’t something you ‘give’, John. I’m going to try and find you a pack; it’s up to you to decide if you’ll let it be your home.”

He turned towards the door, the scent of pizza wafting through, moments before there was a knock on the door.

“Food’s here,” He said with a smile.

 

*******

  
  


When Scott finally exited the motel room an hour and a half later, he found Theo sitting on the tailgate of his truck, staring up at the stars.

Silently, Scott hopped up next to him, waiting for the Chimera to speak first.

It took a few minutes; minutes that should have been uncomfortable, or awkward. But instead, despite the situation, Scott found it to be an easy silence, almost… peaceful, in spite of the chaos around them.

Finally, Theo spoke.

“Kid asleep?”

Scott nodded. “Yeah. Ate the whole pizza and passed out,” He said with a soft chuckle.

“Gotta figure out a place to get him before the full moon in two days. Kid that young, his control is gonna be shaky at best; last thing we need with Monroe around is a werewolf tween running around Santa Barbara,” Theo said quietly, still staring up at the sky.

“I called Derek before I came out; he put in a few calls. He said the Montana Mountain Pack takes in a lot of strays; guess their Alpha’s a pretty good guy. Derek said he deals with a lot of younger kids, helps them get control of their wolves. Figure it’s probably the best place for him.”

Theo grunted noncommittally, and Scott gave him a questioning look. After a moment, Theo sighed, and finally looked over at Scott.

“You know what getting turned is like. That kid just had his whole life ripped out from under him. But he can’t be much more than ten, eleven at most. Hell, kid that young shouldn’t have even  _ survived  _ the Bite. Now on top of all that, he had to see his family butchered...and he knows it’s his fault.” He paused for a moment, starring heavenward again.

“Theo, it’s  _ not  _ is fault.” Scott started,  unable to keep the concern from his voice as he tried to catch Theo’s eyes . “He didn’t—” 

“He’s gonna drift for a few days, while his brain processes what actually happened.” Theo continued as if Scott hadn’t interjected. “What he lost. About what happened to his pack, about what Monroe did to him…” His voice trailed off again, and Scott saw the dark, pensive look come over his face.

“He’s tough though,” Scott said softly.  If it had been anyone else, he would’ve nudged their shoulder, but he resisted the urge . “He’ll make it out okay.”

“I know you think that.” Theo sighed “But not everyone’s strong like you, Scott. Lotta people can’t play by the rule ‘what doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger’. Lot of  _ adults  _ break under that kind of pressure; when everything starts to sink in… Kid’s gonna be in hell. How young he is… He’s either gonna turn into a sobbing mess, or he’s gonna get angry. But no matter what, he’s never gonna be normal. He’s not gonna forget what that bitch did to him. What she did to his family. He’s still in shock; what happened hasn’t sank in. But it will. And that nightmare’s never gonna leave him.”

Scott hesitated before speaking. Clearly, Theo was talking about himself as much as he was Jonathan, but Scott knew that it was uncomfortable territory; Theo rarely talked about his time with the Dread Doctors, or what they’d done to him. The few times he had, he’d tried passing it off as jokes, or like it didn’t matter.

But Theo had been off since the warehouse. Clearly, something -beyond the obvious -was bothering him. He’d brought up the topic, and seemed to be trying to get something off his chest - the first time he’d done so. Both Melissa and Scott had agreed not to push him, to let him move forward at his own pace, but he wasn’t sure what to do now that Theo had taken that first step.

However, he knew that if he waited too long, Theo would pull back. So he took the plunge.

“It’ll get better. He’ll have friends, people who care about him. People who can help him through the nightmare. Show him that everything’s gonna be okay.”  He was unable to keep the hopeful, gentle tone out of his voice, knowing that Theo knew he wasn’t talking about the boy anymore either.

“But it’s  _ not  _ gonna be okay.” Theo gave him a small, sad smile. “That’s sort of the point, isn’t it? You’re not  _ supposed  _ to be okay after somebody tortures you. After somebody cuts you open just for the hell of it. The whole idea is to break you into as many little pieces as they can without killing you. That way, even if somebody manages to put you back together, it’s not like it was; you’re ugly, and broken, and everyone can see it. And the younger you are… the more obvious and ugly it is.”

“Theo—”

“Don’t lie, Scott,” Theo cut him off quietly. “I… I know what I am. I know what that kid’s gonna be. Sure, he’ll probably turn out better than I am, but… That’s not really saying much, is it?”

“You’re not a monster, Theo,” Scott said insistently. “Yeah, shitty stuff happened to you; you did what you needed to do to survive, but you were just a little kid. That doesn’t make you a monster.”

Theo didn’t say anything, just bit his lip and kept his eyes turned up towards the stars. Scott wished he could tell if he was even considering his words or if he was just continuing to torture himself in silence. More and more, he was fighting back the urge to give Theo some sort of physical comfort; a pat on the back, a one-armed hug, even just leaning in shoulder-to-shoulder.

“Can you smell the wounds under his clothes?” Theo asked, after a long moment.

“Yes…” Scott admitted, solemnly. “I think they’re just slow-healing from the wolfsbane. If they’re still there by morning then we’ll take a closer look at them, but I didn’t want to make him show us. He’s already been humiliated enough.”

“Monroe must’ve pumped  him with enough of the shit to bring down a full-grown werewolf.” Theo concurred. “But he’ll recover — psychically. The younger you are, the better your body reacts to the wolfsbane. Kid his age could take a dose that would probably kill a normal adult wolf,” He explained. “Doctors did a lot of testing on it. That’s why they used teenagers in the first place. Our bodies can take more of a beating, and our minds adapt easier to the mental stress than adult brains do.”

“You’d think adults would handle it better,” Scott offered quietly, inviting Theo to continue  He noticed that Theo had switched from ‘them’ to ‘our’, but he chose not to comment . “Since adults understand what’s happening more than a kid would.”

Theo chuckled darkly. “You’d think so, wouldn’t you. But that’s why adults don’t handle it as well. Kids just… they don’t have the experience to draw on. When somebody’s digging through your insides, poking around to see what makes you jump, an adult  _ knows  _ it’s wrong; they know  _ exactly  _ how bad it is. An adult knows exactly how much it’s supposed to hurt, and how badly it’s supposed to mess them up.

“A kid… Hell, a kid goes through something like that enough, and he just… starts thinking it’s normal. He hasn’t died yet, so he won’t. It still hurts, sure, but an adult would assume that they’ll die from it. A kid… he just takes it, and moves on. Because he doesn’t know how bad it actually is. Eventually, he adapts to the situation, learns how to handle it, how he’s supposed to react. It gets to a point where watching someone do a vivisection on him is just a typical Saturday night; watching someone move his organs around and playing cat’s cradle with his intestines is just another weekday. Anesthetic? That’s for bitches.”

“That what happened to you?”  Scott was proud of how steady his voice was; that he was able to keep the horror at what had happened, and the sorrow that Theo had went through it from his words.

Theo was silent, as a minute passed. Then two. Finally, just when Scott was starting to think that Theo was just going to ignore him, the other boy spoke.

“I had an advantage over most kids,” Theo said, staring down at his feet dangling off the tailgate. “My… my dad —”He said the word through gritted teeth “—had already taught me that I could take most physical pain. That no matter how bad it was, it’d end eventually. The Doctors might’ve ramped it up to an eleven, but…” He shrugged. “I knew I could take it.”

“I’m sorry, Theo,” Scott said, fighting the urge to lean in closer, to try and comfort him; he could smell the distress seeping through Theo’s finely crafted facade, but he knew Theo didn’t react well to physical closeness, no matter how desperately he might’ve wanted it.

“For what? Like I said at the warehouse, Scott, not everything bad that happens is your fault.”

“But this  _ was _ ,” Scott said quietly, staring down at his hands. “I didn’t… I didn’t see it when we were kids, and I didn’t see it when you came back. I look back at it, and… It was obvious how much you were hurting.”

Theo raised one eyebrow. “So… you’re apologizing for not seeing something that even the adults didn’t pick up on when I was a kid? Apologizing for seeing  _ exactly  _ what I wanted you to when I came back to Beacon Hills?”

“Yes,” Scott said firmly. “Because I was your  _ friend _ , Theo; I should have seen it. I… I didn’t see it, and I should have.”

Theo sighed. “Scott… you ever stop thinking about how much you ‘failed’ me, and consider the fact that you  _ saved  _ me? Literally, you saved my life. When I was living in my truck, I… Scott, I was having nightmares, every night. My parents, Tara, the Dread Doctors, all the shit I’d done… I was barely sleeping, barely eating… Some days, I’d… I’d see them even when I was awake. Some days, I couldn’t tell if they were real or not. I was… I was at the edge of the cliff, and wondering exactly how far the fall was. But then you and your mom… You  _ saved  _ me. You… you gave me a second chance, a chance to… to make up for all the shit I’d done. Showed me that I could be a part of a family, that I could…” The Chimera’s voice trailed off for a moment.  “That somebody… That somebody cared,” He finished quietly, his voice barely louder than a whisper.

Scott could feel a piece of his heart shatter. “Theo…” He wasn’t sure what he meant to say afterwards. Wasn’t sure when his resolve broke, and he found himself reaching over to put his hand on Theo’s shoulder. For a moment, Theo seemed to melt into. Then, out of nowhere , he leaned over, grabbing the back of Scott’s head, and kissed him. A long, deep kiss.

Scott’s mind blanked for a few seconds, the feeling of Theo’s soft lips pressed against his, the Chimera’s tongue pressing insistently against Scott’s lips, taking his breath away. In that moment, more than anything, Scott wanted to lean into the kiss, to kiss Theo back; to forget about what was going on around them, and lose it all in the moment…

But he hesitated.

He could  _ feel  _ the moment Theo felt his reluctance. When he opened his eyes - _ and damned if he could remember when he’d closed them _ -Theo was staring at the ground, his face that disturbing blank mask, armor fully back in place.

“Sorry.”

“I… huh?” Scott managed, his lips still burning with sensation.

“I shouldn’t have… I’m sorry. I get it. No worries.”

“What? No. No, it’s not —”

“Scott, I said don’t worry about it. I get it, alright? I’m a mess; hell, I’m a goddamn disaster, and —”

“Theo,  _ no _ ,” Scott cut him off firmly. “It… Look, I… I like you, okay? Like…  _ like  _ like you. But, I’m worried...” He hesitated to put his suspicions into words, before he decided that the situation really couldn’t get any worse than Theo thinking Scott was ashamed or embarrassed by him. So he pushed forward. “Theo, did you kiss me because you like me? Or because you think you… you owe me something?”

Theo opened his mouth, but nothing came out.

Scott nodded. “That’s what I thought. Theo, I don’t… listen, man, you don’t  _ owe  _ me anything, okay? If… if you like me too, then… then we can talk about this, and figure out where to go from here, but… Can you look me in the eye, and tell me that you want this, because you want it, for no other reason than that?”

Theo was quiet for a moment, before he stared back up at the sky again. “I… I don’t know,” He said quietly, his voice hitching a bit.

“Then, I’ll tell you what: when you can look at me, and tell me that you’re doing this because you want to, not because you think you owe me something…We’ll go from there, alright? C’mon, let’s head back inside; Derek said the Montana Alpha should be here tomorrow around eleven. We should try and get some sleep.”

Theo shook his head. “You go ahead; I’ll take first watch. I just… I wanna be alone for a bit.”

Scott thought about staying; he knew Theo wasn’t exactly in a good headspace, and the sad, almost lost look on his face nearly broke Scott’s resolve.

It took every ounce of willpower he had to turn around, and walk back towards the hotel room.

Because, sure… A good friend would never leave a friend alone like that. But Theo didn’t need a ‘good friend’; he needed someone who  _ trusted  _ him enough -who knew him enough -to respect his request.

As much as Scott wanted to stay, the logical part of him knew that doing so would be selfish; that he’d be staying for him, not for Theo.

He had to keep repeating that to himself as he quietly closed the door to the hotel room.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So here's the thing, guys and girls... My son -who I love very dearly -is currently being much derp, and rebroke his leg. So on top of my ridiculous work schedule -and seriously people, please remember, two weeks notice isn't just for your bosses, but your co-workers too! - I have to follow him around like a hawk and make sure he doesn't do any more derp'ing.
> 
> As always, thank you to the awesomely amazing DemonzDust.

 

 

The silence was utterly deafening.

The whole ride home had been awkward, the previous night’s conversation and actions hung over them like a thick cloud. Theo had given John a quiet, ‘You’ll be fine, kid’ when the Montana Alpha picked him up, but hadn’t uttered a word since..

Silent as they packed up their clothes. Silent as they checked out. Silent getting into the truck.

Silent the entire ride.

Scott had spent the entire trip trying to figure out what he could say to fix it; what he could do to take their relationship back to what it had been.

Part of him wanted to just take his hesitation back; wanted to just kiss Theo, and see where it went. It was uncharted territory —for both of them, he imagined.

But deep inside, he knew that that wouldn’t be fair to Theo; that he’d be taking advantage of him, like everyone else in the Chimera’s life had done to him. Because Theo was…

Scott glanced over at Theo, who was staring at the road. His blue eyes were moving back and forth, in an almost unconscious movement as they drove… Still searching for the hidden threats. Despite his casual, almost relaxed posture, Scott could see the slight tenseness in his muscles, the way his left cheek twitched every now and then as they made their way back north.

He sighed as he looked back out his own window.

He was so far out of his depth with Theo, he couldn’t even keep his head above the water, much less swim to safety. He’d bought some books on long-term kidnapping victims, and POW’s —hiding them at the clinic to keep Theo from finding them —and it seemed like the more he learned, the more lost he was. Neither one really seemed to fit Theo well, and Scott struggled to try and follow advice he didn’t believe in. Advice like ‘just listen, but don’t argue; all feelings are valid and deserve consideration’, for example, seemed counter-productive at best, and absolutely stupid at worst.

And it seemed like, in every situation, there was no right answer; no right choice. There was just ‘bad’ and ‘worse’.

He felt a wave of relief as he spotted the ‘Welcome To Beacon Hills’ sign, thankful that the long ride was almost over.

But almost as soon as they came into Beacon Hills proper, he felt that familiar pang of nostalgia, tinged with guilt. They drove by the corner store, where they’d found the kitten back in fourth grade. Then the park where they’d spent their summers. The closer they drove to the house, the more memories of a happier —and simpler —time there were.

When they pulled onto his road, though, Scott felt his mood leap, as he spotted a familiar blue Prius sitting in his driveway.

“Lovely. Just what I needed,” Theo muttered, so quiet Scott could only just hear him, as they got out of the truck.

Ignoring him, Scott practically ran up the driveway, bursting inside the front door. Before he could even hit the kitchen, however, he spotted a splash of brown hair, moments before Stiles’ comforting weight crashed into him.

“Scotty! Thank God, man, Derek called, told us what happened. You alright?”

“Ease up, twitchy,” Came Theo’s laconic voice behind them. “Fight was over a few hours before we even got there. Your boyfriend’s fine.”

“As his girlfriend, I take offense to that,” Lydia said, rounding the corner, and giving Theo a smile. “I don’t share well. Hi, Scott.”

Stiles moved aside, giving Scott room to give Lydia a gentle hug. “Hey, Lydia. Everything going okay?”

She rubbed one hand over her slightly protruding stomach. “Good. Allison is trying to kick me apart from the inside out, but good,” She said with a grin.

“Or Luke!” Stiles said pointedly.

Theo frowned as the group moved towards the kitchen. “Didn’t you guys find out the gender?”

Lydia rolled her eyes. “Yes. She’s a girl,” she said in exasperation as they all sat down at the table.

“You know, those things aren’t always accurate, and it’s easy to miss stuff,” Stiles said quickly. “You can never actually be sure.”

“We’re sure,” Lydia interjected.

A comfortable silence fell over the room, an air of familiarity, of ‘the gang’ being back together. After a few minutes, Theo stood, and made his way towards the fridge.

“Got any cravings, Lydia? Stuff you hate?” He asked, digging through the fridge. “We haven’t eaten yet, I’ll make extra.”

“Oh my God, do you have spaghetti? I’d kill someone for spaghetti right now,” Lydia exclaimed, pushing herself to her feet, and joining Theo by the counters.

“I don’t, but give me half an hour, and I’ll give you some of the best spaghetti you’ve ever had. Scott, your mom left a note,” He said absently, as he started pulling things out of the fridge. “She needs light bulbs, double ‘A’ batteries, and…” He frowned as he peered closer at the note. “I think that’s… Pepper? Dr. Pepper,” He said confidently. “Diet.”

Scott glanced over at Stiles. “Up for a road trip?”

“You know it. Lydia, you want -”

“Watermelon. And olives. Green olives.”

Stiles rolled his eyes, giving Scott a put-upon look as they stood. “Alright. Want peanut butter to roll the olives in?”

“What? Stiles, that’s disgusting,” She said, wrinkling her nose.

Scott did his best to hide his grin at the hopeless look on Stiles’ face.

 

*****************

 

“Man, I’ll tell you, Scotty… Don’t ever get a girl pregnant,” Stiles complained, gliding Lydia’s Prius down the highway towards Wal-Mart. “Like… Last week? She wanted pineapples and onions.”

“That’s not that bad… A lot of people put pineapples on pizza, and —”

“No.” Stiles cut him off shortly. “Not on pizza.”

“Oh. As in…?”

“As in a bowl of pineapple and onions. Just a big ol’ bowl of raw onions and pineapple.”

“Yeesh.”

“Yeah,” Stiles said morosely. “I mean, don’t get me wrong, like I’m super stoked about the baby and all but… I’ve had to feed myself for the last two months. Ever since month three, Scott, I can’t trust her alone in the kitchen.”

“You guys got the baby room set up yet?”

Stiles rolled his eyes. “Nursery. It’s a ‘nursery’,” he said, his voice matching Lydia’s cadence perfectly. “And yes. Apparently there’s this whole thing on colors, and what it does to babies and everything. Like, apparently dark _blue_ is bad, and can give your kid all kinds of… I don’t know, serial killer urges or something. But dark _green_ is calming or some shit.”

“Uh huh,” Scott responded, unsure if that was actually a thing, or Stiles exaggerating.

“So we ended up going Sweet Summer Peach, with Sacramento Uniform Green borders. And! She won’t even let me pick the theme. We ended up going an ocean theme. Like, we’ve got an ocean mobile with dolphins, and seahorses, ocean themed bedspread with dolphins and seahorses, a dresser with dolphins and seahorses, and even the freaking changing table —which is super weird, right, who gets a table specifically to change babies on, like a table you can only use for a year —and can you guess what’s on the changing table, Scotty?”

“Uh… Dolphins and seahorses?” Scott said slowly.

“No! Because that’d make too much sense! There’s freaking seashells and starfish! ‘Cause, you know, starfish aren’t super freaking creepy or anything.”

Scott was silent for a minute, trying to bite back his smile, before he spoke again. “You pushed for a Star Wars theme?”

“Hell yeah, I did! Give our kid the best Star Wars fantasy room ever! Make ‘em all brave, and epic, but no. We had to go with dolphins and seahorses.”

The two both chuckled, before Stiles continued on.

“I miss you, Scott. I get that Lydia’s job is in D.C., but I’ll be finished with my courses soon, and I can pretty much pick any field office on the West Coast next month. And Lydia’s like… super smart, and she’s the youngest shrink to ever be on the AACAP, she could get a job freaking anywhere in the world, you know? I just… I don’t want my kid growing up without my dad, or your mom, or you. We always said we were gonna buy houses next door to each other, and do barbeques, and build the treehouses our parents would never let us build—”

“Literally, you wanted a full size house with a hot tub,” Scott interjected.

Stiles gave him a disappointed look. “It would have worked. But that’s not the point. I _hate_ D.C., Scott. I hate D.C. like I hate cats.” He sighed, pulling the car into the Wal-Mart parking lot. “How you handling the whole Monroe thing? Sorry I wasn’t here this summer but —”

“No worries, man,” Scott said with a wave of his hand. “You had your qualifications. I get it. Besides, between the rest of the pack, we got it taken care of.”

“And the rest of the pack now includes Theo living at your house?”

Scott tensed, knowing the argument that was coming. “Stiles, I—”

“I’m just asking, Scott. I’m not… criticizing,” Stiles interrupted slowly. “I mean… I don’t like him —and I won’t ever like him —but I heard what he did for your mom. And if Theo being there takes some of the pressure off…” He sighed. “You know Lydia calls him? Well, I think your mom called her, and asked her to call him or something, but… She calls him once or twice a week; I don’t know what they talk about, but Lydia already gave me the speech about being nice and all that.”

As they grabbed the cart, and started inside, Scott debated with himself for a few minutes, unsure of what to say. Stiles filled in the void, chattering about all the inane things he was dealing with, going on about rules, and other candidates. By the time they hit the produce department, Scott decided to do it.

“Theo kissed me.”

Stiles stopped dead in front of the onions, one hand holding the bag halfway into the cart, his mouth hanging open. Scott stared at him worried for a few seconds.

“Uh. Stiles?”

“Theo… _kissed_ you? Like, _kissed_ , kissed you?”

Scott nodded, chewing on his lip with his teeth.

“Um… Uh… Okay. Okay, wow. So Theo’s into dudes? I definitely wouldn’t have guessed that one, I mean… And he’s into _you_ ? Wow. _Wow_. So did you punch him?”

“What?! No! Why would I punch him?!”

Stiles’ eyes narrowed. “Did you kiss him back?”

“No...”

“Alright, well when somebody unexpectedly kisses you, you either kiss back, or knock their lips off their face.”

Scott rolled his eyes, already regretting telling Stiles. He grabbed the cart, and started pulling it behind him towards the back of the store, towards the soda aisle. “No, that’s _your_ response.”

“Scott! Dude, stop! This is serious! _Theo_ freaking kissed you. C’mon, you can’t just… drop a bomb like that, and just casually go get some juice. What’s going on?”

Scott stopped slowly, sighing as he turned to look at Stiles.

“Alright. Alright, good. So… Do you um… like Theo? Are _you_ into dudes? ‘Cause, I’m totally cool if you are, or whatever, like, I support you one hundred and thirteen percent, whatever you decide, you know that, I always have, and -”

“I don’t know, okay? I… I don’t... “ Scott scrubbed one hand through his hair, frustrated. “I think I like Theo. Well… no, I _know_ I like Theo. But what we have right now, it’s… it’s complicated.”

“Dude, don’t give me that shit! This isn’t a Facebook status thing!”

“I don’t know, alright! I’m not… Look, Theo’s in… he’s in a weird place right now, okay? Do you know why he kissed me? I asked him, Stiles. He kissed me because he thinks he owes me for trying to help him. What was I supposed to do?” Once the floodgates had opened, Scott found he couldn’t stop. “Yes, I like Theo, I’m attracted to him, but I want to _help_ him. I don’t want to be an obligation because he thinks he owes me something. I don’t know if this whole thing is different with guys, and I didn’t _think_ I liked guys, but I definately like Theo so maybe I do, but he only fucking kissed me because he’s been so fucking twisted by the stupid fucking doctors that he thinks anybody who does something nice or good wants something from him! So I don’t even know if he likes me, or this is his fucked up way of trying to pay me back, or making sure I don’t kick him out or something! Fuck!” He swore, slamming his hands onto the handle of the cart, hanging his head.

After a few moments, he felt Stiles hand on his back.

“Feel better?” His voice was -for Stiles -surprisingly gentle.

He looked up, and gave Stiles a small smile. “Yeah. Actually, that helped,” He said, sighing. “I just… I don’t know what I’m supposed to do here. I don’t even know if Theo is… gay, or bi, or whatever. I just… I’m not sure what I’m even supposed to do here, you know?”

“Uh… not… really, no,” Stiles said, before sighing. “Look, are you like… attracted to him?”

“I… I think I am, but… He’s not -”

“I get it, Theo has problems,” Stiles interrupted. “That’s not what I asked. Because I’ll be honest, Scott, it sort of sounds like…”

“Like what?” Scott demanded as Stiles hesitated.

“Are you sure this isn’t just some Alpha werewolf thing? Because everything you’re telling me is like… you feel bad for him or something.”

“What?! No! I mean… yes, obviously, I feel bad for him, but… You know how you could just sort of… pick Lydia out in a room full of people? How even when she was being bitchy, you couldn’t help but get that warm, stupid feeling in the pit of your stomach? That’s how it is with Theo,” He explained. “I just… I always know where he is, and if I don’t, it just feels like… like something’s missing. When he’s there, I just… It’s sort of like how I felt with Allison. Like being around him just… makes me happier. Even if we’re both miserable, I’m still sort of happy because I’m with him.”

“Like… he’s your anchor?” Stiles asked curiously.

“Not ‘like’,” Scott admitted. “He’s definitely my anchor. I just… I spent years being my own anchor, after everything with Allison, because I didn’t… I couldn’t lose control like that again. Then somehow, next thing I know, Theo’s there, and I can’t stop thinking about him, and wondering what it would be like to-”

“Woah, woah,” Stiles interrupted. “I don’t need the dirty details. So you definitely like Theo. Is it just Theo? Like is this a new thing? It’s new right, I didn’t miss anything, or you didn’t keep it from me because -”

“No. This is definitely something… new. I know it’s stupid, but… being with him, it’s kind of like… I get those same feelings I got when I was with Allison. Like no matter what, we could do anything. No matter what we were doing, it was just… it was all gonna be okay.” Scott said slowly, before looking over at Stiles. A frown came to his face as he saw Stiles’ smirk. “What?”

“Nothing,” Stiles said innocently.

“Dude, whatever you’re going to say, just say it.”

“I wasn’t gonna say anything.”

“I swear to God, Stiles.”

“What?”

“Just say it,” Scott growled, seeing Stiles’ smirk grow into a full fledged grin.

“You’re only gay for Theo?” Stiles said, a bark of laughter accompanying the statement. A yelp followed as he ducked around the edge of the cart, only barely escaping Scott’s reach. “Gah! Hey, stop! Best friend abuse! Somebody call the FBI! Help!”

 

***********

 

“So uh… How’s… all that… going?” Theo asked, waving one hand in the general direction of Lydia’s stomach.

Lydia looked over at Theo, raising one eyebrow. “You mean being pregnant? Let’s just say Stiles is lucky he’s cute. Or I would have emasculated him by now.”

Theo snorted as he dumped the box of spaghetti noodles into the boiling water. “I’m surprised he doesn’t want to name the kid Conan or Sonja or something.”

“Star Wars. Even though we’ve had two sonograms confirm it’s a girl, he still insists it could be a boy, and if it is, he wants Luke. Do you know he actually tried to convince me to do a Star Wars themed nursery?”

“I buy that,” Theo said, turning towards her with a smirk. “You want some coffee, or… wait, you can’t have caffeine, how about uh…” He turned back towards the cupboards. “I think Melissa keeps some tea here for Argent.”

“Tea would be lovely if you have it. If not, a glass of water would work.”

She watched, unable to hide her smile, as Theo bustled around the kitchen, finally pulling a small box of tea from the pantry, and started boiling another pan of water. “You seem a lot happier, Theo.”

“Huh? Oh, yeah, I uh… I like being in the kitchen,” He said slowly, moving over to sit down across from her at the table. “It’s… relaxing. Thanks for those recipes, by the way. Melissa loved the french toast pancakes.”

“It’s an old family recipe. My grandmother used to make them for me, whenever I was at the lakehouse.”

“Yeah, I’m gonna try the Chicken Picatta tomorrow. Dunno if Scott will like it, he’s not a fan of peppers. But Melissa is.”

“Uh huh.”

“What?” Theo asked defensively, folding his arms over his chest. “I do most of the cooking, so I know what they both like. Melissa’s working most the time, and Scott’s freaking hopeless in the kitchen.”

Lydia’s smile grew. “Sure. If you say so.”

“I do,” Theo growled. “It’s not - “

Lydia stared at him in confusion, as his back stiffened, his head turning towards the front door.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey folks! I'm hoping to be back on regular chapter updates, if my lovable dweeb of a child doesn't hurt himself again. I have another chapter almost finished, that I'll be posting for Sceo week, which is coming up.
> 
> On that note, I seriously invite everyone to participate in Sceo week. You can get more info on it in the link below. It's honestly how I got my start in this fandom, and it introduced me to some really great fics, and authors -including my awesome beta DemonzDust. 
> 
> I've been in a lot of fandoms over the years, and I honestly have to say the Sceo fandom -and its groups on Tumblr -is of the most healthy, inviting, and friendly fandom I've ever encountered. Even if you think your work isn't good enough to post, trust me... you won't regret posting it up. A lot of times it's hard to break into a new fandom, or even posting a story on here for the first time. But this fandom? This is definitely the least toxic one I've run into, and a great one to get into the swing of writing and posting.
> 
> So. Dig out your old works folder, give 'em a few polishes, and post that shit up. Write something new -with or without the suggested themes -and post that shit up. While the themes are there, they're just suggestions, not hard requirements. So go on! Go write something! This chapter isn't going anywhere, and I'd love to see you all posting something for it.
> 
> https://sceosource.tumblr.com/post/186029558794/sceoweek-is-less-than-2-weeks-away-our-optional

"—so then I told her that since she picked everything else out, I got to pick out her first blanket, and then we…”

Scott smiled as he listened to Stiles’ jabbering on, occasionally handing him a bag of groceries. When Scott had seven of the bags hooked around his arm, he handed Stiles one more and closed the trunk.

“You know you didn’t have to buy all this stuff,” Stiles said as they started up the walk. “I know money is —”

“If I want to buy stuff for my niece, I will,” Scott interrupted firmly. “It’s fine.”

“Alright, if you say so,” Stiles said with a shrug as he pushed the front door open. “Lydia? I got your watermelon,” He called out. “And the—”

“Stiles!” Scott hissed, dropping the grocery bags, and shoving Stiles behind him roughly. He’d been so engrossed in listening, he hadn’t smelled it until he was through the front door.

Strangers. The house reeked of strangers, and a sickly, almost sweet smelling odor —all emanating from the kitchen.

He felt his wolf shoving itself to the forefront as he cautiously made his way around the hallway door, and into the kitchen.

“Lydia!”

He ignored Stiles as the other boy went running up the stairs, focusing on the scene before him.

At first glance, everything seemed normal. The spaghetti was sitting in the strainer in the sink, a cup of tea sitting next to the stove. Theo’s keys were hanging off the rack, and an unopened jar of tomato paste sat on the island.

It was the second glance that told him something was seriously wrong.

The chairs weren’t pushed in— a pet peeve of Theo’s, who insisted on pushing the chairs in whenever they weren’t in use. A small shard of white ceramic probably from a coffee cup, although he didn’t look in the trash to confirm —was just barely visible underneath the fridge. Theo’s keys were always on the left-most hook, but now they were on the fourth hook. There was a small scratch in the hardwood floor, perhaps an inch long, that didn’t belong.

“Lydia!”

Stiles’ voice rang out from upstairs, as Scott knelt down next to the rug that the kitchen table sat on, the small glint of something metallic drawing his attention.

He picked the object up, and turned it over in his hands. It was some sort of black button, or pin, with an odd looking green cross on it.

“Scott! Scott, she’s gone! They’re both gone!” Stiles cried, kicking the wall angrily. “They’re both fucking gone!”

Scott stood, slowly, the odd button still in his hand as he made his way over to Stiles.

“We’ll find them,” He said with a conviction he wasn’t sure he possessed. “We just gotta…” He took a deep breath, trying to pull himself together, trying to ignore the fact that whatever took Theo and Lydia had done so without either of them putting up much of a struggle. “Okay. Okay, call Chris. Have him get here as soon as he can. Then call the rest of the pack, have them on standby; we don’t know if this was a coordinated thing, or —”

“Monroe fucking took her!” Stiles yelled, kicking at the wall again.

Scott grabbed Stiles, spinning him around roughly, until the other boy faced him. “No, she didn’t! This wasn’t Monroe. Think, Stiles, okay? I know you’re panicking, but you’ve gotta hold it together. For Lydia, and Allison, okay? Call Argent, we need him, call my mom, tell her to go over to your dad’s, then call the pack.”

“What are you gonna do?” Stiles asked, and Scott forced himself to ignore the tears streaming freely down his best friend’s face.

“I’m gonna see if I can track them.”

“Scotty… Scott, no,” Stiles said, understanding dawning on his face. “You can’t; I don’t like Theo, but… he’s a good fighter. If they took him, and Lydia, without leaving a trace…”

“I can’t… I can’t sit and wait, Stiles,” Scott said, desperation in his voice. “I… I can try and get a headstart. I’ve got my phone, if I find them I can —”

“You can what? Call us? Scott, the pack will fall apart without you; we _need_ you, and even if you manage to find them, you can’t carry both of them out. And I promise you, if they were able to take  _ both _ of them without a struggle, they’ll  _ both _ need to be carried.”

Scott wanted to argue; he wanted to snap at Stiles to do what he was told, and then take off after the vague, barely discernible scent that went out the back door.

But he knew Stiles was right; if the scent in the house was hardly noticeable, he wouldn’t be able to track it outdoors any better. He was also right about neither Theo or Lydia being conscious when they left; one of them would’ve left a sign or a clue.

So he nodded. “Alright. Call Chris; find out where he is. Liam should…” He struggled to think for a moment. “Liam should be at Mason and Corey’s house; they’ve got study group with some kids from school. We’ll pick them up, meet Chris, wherever he is. I’ll call my mom, and tell her to go to the station, and stay with your dad,” He added as they climbed back into the Prius.

An hour later found Scott, Stiles, and the younger pack members in Argent’s bunker. The older hunter turned the pin over, peering at the back side, before setting it down on the table.

“Lumen de Lumine,” Chris finally said, placing both hands flat on the table, still staring at the button.

“Lu du what?” Liam asked, chewing anxiously on his thumbnail.

“Lumen de Lumine,” Mason corrected. “It’s old Latin; the light of the light? That’s the literal translation, anyways,” He said with a shrug as all the others looked at him. “What? I took Latin as an elective.”

“Beacon Hills offers Latin?” Liam asked curiously.

“Ahem.” Chris cleared his throat, and waited until everyone was looking at him. “That’s close, Mason. Latin is a dead language, so things get lost in our modern translation. But it’s ‘Light Of Light’; I’ve heard of it before, but… I wasn’t even sure they actually existed,” He admitted. “A lot of the older hunters talked about it; Gerard said they were religious fanatics, dating back to the early Roman days. Even he’d never met any, but he claimed my grandfather had met one, back in the 1920s.”

“Okay, so what did he know about them?” Stiles demanded. “Why did the creepy religious hunters decide to come back to life and grab Lydia and Theo?”

“Theo’s a Chimera,” Liam interjected thoughtfully. “As far as we know, Theo and Corey are the only two Chimeras alive.”

Scott shook his head. “Not many people know that Chimeras are a thing,” He said slowly. “I don’t think even Monroe knows that they’re different from ordinary shifters.”

“They weren’t after Theo,” Chris said firmly. “The Lumen de Lumine aren’t ordinary hunters; they might hunt down a werewolf, but only ones like the Beast. They go after the heavy hitters of the supernatural world. Kanimas, Hellhounds, aeternae -”

“Banshees,” Stiles finished breathlessly, his face draining of blood. “They go after Banshees.”

Chris nodded firmly. “Ever since Ireland converted to Catholicism, they’ve had a grudge against Banshees. What Scott did for the supernatural population of Beacon Hills, the Banshees did for the pagans in Ireland and Scotland. They united them, gave them hope, gave them courage to fight back. All hunters know the story of Aibrean… it’s why we were so cautious when we found out Lydia was a Banshee. Aibrean was able to muster an army to fight back against the Catholics —there were human pagans, and supernatural fighting side-by-side, and she decimated the Catholics.

“According to lore, Lumen de Lumine finally managed to kill Aibrean and her three daughters by attacking them at the feast of Beltane, when the Banshees power was weakest. They won, but the losses were… catastrophic, if our legends are true. The Lumen de Lumine vowed to hunt down all Banshees after the battle, and they did a pretty thorough job. It runs down the maternal bloodline, so whenever they found a Banshee, they’d kill all of the women of the family. From the elderly, to babies.”

Almost before he’d finished, Stiles fell to his knees, staggering. Scott was by his side in an instant.

“Stiles. Stiles, listen to me. Listen, we’re going to find them, okay? We’re going to find all of them, and everything’s gonna be okay, alright?”

“Scott… Scotty, they’re gonna kill her. If she’s… if she’s…” A desperate, almost animalistic sound tore out of Stiles’ throat, and Scott felt his throat tighten at the noise.

“Actually, Stiles, I don’t think they will,” Chris said reassuringly.

“Why? Because the secret religious nutjob hunters wouldn’t attack a pregnant woman?”

To their surprise, Chris nodded. “Not right away. Not until they could confirm that Lydia is having a girl. If she were having a boy, and they killed her, they’d be taking an innocent life. Men can’t become Banshees, and their bloodline is protected from other supernatural influence.”

“They’re… what?”

“None of Lydia’s kids could be anything but Banshees; a werewolf or vampire bite can’t infect them—”

“Wait, vampires are a legit thing?!” Corey squeaked.

“— and even a werewolf breeding into the family line can’t pass on the strain. If you had a son, he could get bit by Scott, and nothing would happen,” Chris continued, ignoring Corey.

“So they’d need to confirm that Allie is a girl,” Mason said with a small nod. “So… we should check for stolen ultrasound equipment then. If we check the local hospitals—”

“They wouldn’t steal them,” Chris interrupted. “They live by the laws of the Old Testament. The ‘thou shalt not or thou shalt die’ kind. They won’t eat pork, or shellfish, clothes made from two different types of materials —”

“They kill gays, and women who get raped in town?” Corey asked darkly.

Chris nodded slowly. “Only to their own, but yes, I would imagine. They follow everything else in the Old Testament.”

“Where would they get an ultrasound without being suspicious?” Scott demanded, trying to steer the conversation back on track. He studiously ignored the shrieking voice in his head, wondering how these religious fanatics would take to a gay or bisexual werewolf, and what that could mean for Theo if they found out.

Chris sighed. “I don’t know. They’d have to either buy one, or maybe they have their own lab somewhere.”

“Do we have any idea where ‘somewhere’ might be?” Scott asked hopefully.

Chris nodded slowly. “I can make some calls. I don’t know if I’ll be able to find anything, but somebody should know something. Call the Sheriff, have him call around. You have to be licensed to buy an ultrasound, so unless they already have one, they’ll be looking to buy.”

“Alright. Okay, so here’s what we’re gonna do,” Scott said firmly, looking around at the pack. “Stiles, call your dad, fill him in. My mom should be at the station by now, she can help. Chris, make your calls, see what information you can get. Mason, and Corey, you two hit up the Argent libraries, see if you can dig up anymore information.”

“What’re we doing?” Liam asked quietly, watching as everyone moved about their tasks.

“We’re going back to my house. We’re gonna see if these assholes dropped anything else, and then we’re gonna track them. I don’t care if we have to follow them to Mexico, we’re getting Lydia and Theo back.”


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's Sceo week folks! Go check it out!
> 
> A huge thank you to DemonzDust, who has -once again -made an awesome image for me to use here, on top of her awesome beta skills.
> 
>   
> 

Theo! Theo, wake up!”

“Nnngghhh.”

Theo struggled to yank himself back into consciousness, the heavy weight of useless limbs, and a foggy brain making the task difficult.

“Theo, can you hear me?”

He grunted, the best he could do, given the circumstances, and forced his eyes open. It took a minute for the blurry colors to develop hard lines, as the room slowly came into focus. As soon as it did, he almost wished it hadn’t.

Glancing around the room —a difficult task, given that his head would barely move -he realized two things almost instantly.

Number one: he was in a cage.

Number two: he was in a cage in a lab.

He took a deep breath, as he felt the panic building up —his chest constricted painfully as his heart pounded so loud he could hear it.

“Theo! Theo, look at me!”

He forced his head to move, his eyes having trouble focusing, before he locked onto Lydia.

She was a few feet away —just out of arm’s reach —staring at him intently as she gripped the bars of her own cage.

“Theo, listen to me. Focus on your breathing, okay? In through your nose, out through your mouth. Everything’s going to be okay, just… in through your nose, and out through your mouth. In… and out. In… and out.”

Theo let her voice wash over him as he struggled to obey, pulling in shaky breathes, and exhaling as slowly as he could. After what seemed like an eternity, he felt his heart slow down.

“Okay, good. Good,” Lydia said, relief written on her voice as she sat back, one hand laying protectively over her stomach.

Theo felt a wave of guilt wash over him at the motion. “Lydia, the baby —”

“—Is fine,” She interrupted. “I’ve felt her kick a few times.”

Theo nodded, and pulled himself into a crouch, unable to stand upright in the cage. He glanced around the room, trying to take in the information while ignoring the details.

It was definitely well-funded. Even as his vision slid over the tools, trying to ignore the specifics, he couldn’t help but notice the quality. Unlike the Dread Doctors, the room looked sterile, and professional, like one would see in a hospital.

He hadn’t even noticed that his breathing had picked up again, until he heard Lydia’s sharp “Theo!”

“Have you seen anyone?” He said through gritted teeth, struggling to bite back the panic. While he could feel it physically -his chest felt tight, and he was light-headed -his brain disagreed; mentally he couldn’t feel anything.

“No. I woke up about twenty minutes ago. Are you okay?”

“I’m fine.”

“Theo —”

“Lydia, don’t,” He growled. “I said I’m fine.”

She pursed her lips together, but nodded, sitting back in her own cage.

Theo studiously ignored her as he caught the faintest sound of footsteps, his vision searching out the door. A few seconds later, it opened, and an older, heavy set man walked in.

“Ah, good. I see you’re both awake. Excellent, excellent. I’m Doctor Taylor, and,while we know who you are, Lydia, we were rather surprised about you, young sir,” He said with a high class British accent, as he walked closer to Theo, kneeling a few feet from the bars of the cage. “I’m afraid we did a bit of poking before you arrived here; it was fairly obvious that you weren’t a normal werewolf -the wolfsbane in that sleeping gas would’ve affected you more quickly than it did. But you possess most of the physical and genetic traits of a werewolf. We’re quite intrigued, if you don’t mind me saying so.”

“Glad I could brighten up your day,” Theo said with a sharp smile. “Why don’t you come a bit closer, I’ll show you some of those werewolf traits I have?”

The man chuckled. “I’m afraid not, dear boy. But I do wish you’d rather cooperate with us; it’s not very often we run into something new, you understand. Are you sure you won’t make this easier?”

“Let me think about that for a sec… No. Who are you? What the hell do you want?”

The man —Taylor —shrugged, a friendly, almost genial look on his face. “Those are excellent questions, I suppose. Seeing as how neither of you are leaving here any time soon, I don’t see any harm in answering what I can. Ask away, dear boy.”

Theo looked at him in disbelief. “So you tell us you’re going to kill us, so you’ll answer our questions, like that’s supposed to be a… a what, a compromise?”

“Theo!” Lydia hissed.

“No, no, my dear, I’m afraid the boy is quite right. Quite right. Although, I do feel it necessary to point out, that I’m not necessarily going to kill either of you. As far as we know, Lydia here hasn’t misused her powers in any way, and I would feel simply awful if I had to harm a woman with child. And… Theo, was it?” He looked to Lydia for conformation. “Theo, as far as we could tell, your eyes still carry the genetic code for yellow. I don’t know if you’re aware of the physicality of your species, young sir, but when a werewolf kills someone, their eyes change into a rather vibrant blue color. We couldn’t find any trace of that in your genetics. So… as far as we know, you’re both fine, rather upstanding young folk. No reason to kill you,” He finished with a shrug.

Theo bit back a chuckle at that, trying to get a read on the man’s chemosignals. While his senses weren’t as sharp as a real wolf’s, from what he could tell, the man was telling the truth.

“Alright. Why are we here then?” He demanded, sitting back, forcing himself to get comfortable. “Why’d you attack us if we’re such ‘fine, upstanding folk’?”

“Ah, that’s an easy one, Theo. Is that short for Theodore, perchance? Yes, I imagine so. Regardless, young Theodore, we’re Hunters. Part of an organization that —”

“Hunts down supernaturals, yeah,” Theo interrupted sarcastically. “I’ve run into a few Hunters.”

“Ah, good, good. I like to operate free of assumptions, you understand, and since I know nothing about you, I’m glad for any information you’ll provide. But I digress: we’re part of an old group of Hunters, dating back to the earliest days of Rome. We’re rather a secretive lot, as I’m sure you can understand; a family enterprise, as it were. We’ve passed down the torch from generation to generation for over a thousand years.”

Theo looked at Taylor suspiciously. “And… you decided to travel to Northern Cali on a whim to see if the American Hunters were keeping up? Little overkill for a murdering competition, if you ask me.”

Taylor frowned. “We don’t ‘murder’, Theodore,” He chastised gently. “We understand that many shifters are either born that way, or turned through no fault or desire of their own. As long as they haven’t harmed anyone, we arrange for them to be sent some place where they can’t hurt anyone, where they’re carefully monitored. I understand our brethren across the ocean can be a bit… overzealous… in their mission, but I would appreciate it if you returned my favor, and didn’t make baseless assumptions.”

“Then why are you here?” Lydia asked quietly. “Why here? Why me? How do you even  _ know  _ me?”

“Ah, yes, yes, excellent question, Lydia, an excellent question. You see, our… speciality, as it were, is Banshees. A rather powerful lot, you Banshees. Death and destruction seems to follow you, regardless of your intentions. We monitor the world for any signs that a Banshee might be appearing. We first started tracking the signs two years ago. Last year, we were able to narrow that down to Beacon Hills, and then there were no signs at all. We thought it might be the Tate girl, but we were able to confirm that she was a werewolf. The only other female in the right age range, who’d left Beacon Hills, was Lydia. Once we had her name, finding her grandmother’s asylum records was relatively straight forward.”

“Why wait until now?” Lydia demanded. “Why didn’t you kidnap me in D.C.?”

“Well, firstly we had to do our research. A… what does your military call it? A ‘threat assessment’? By the time we were finished, we’d learned of your plans to return to Beacon Hills for an extended stay, and honestly, this lab is much more suitable than the one we have in the East.”

“Wait, wait,” Theo said sharply. “You’re telling me you decided to attack a Banshee, on her home turf, while she was surrounded by her pack, because you liked your office better?”

The man tutted. “Oh come now, Theodore, three werewolves does not a pack make.” He frowned for a moment. “Well, I suppose in practicality, it does indeed make a pack, but still: it wasn’t like we were seriously concerned. Three werewolves are at rather an unfair advantage against such a superior foe. You all posed no real threat. No offense,” He added, a look of concern on his face.

“Oh, offense taken, Taylor.”

“Doctor Taylor, Theodore. If you don’t mind. I’ve been polite and respectful to you so far, I would appreciate the same courtesy.”

“Yeah, no, not gonna happen. You can talk courtesy all you want, but I saw the tools you’ve got laying out, all ready to go. You don’t go for the rib retractor, the calipers, and de-fleshing scalpels because you just wanted to chat,” He said harshly.

“My dear boy, those were placed here as safety equipment to have on hand incase Lydia here had any sudden complications due to her —”

“There are exactly zero medical reasons you’d use any of those on a pregnant woman,” Theo interrupted. “And trust me, Doc… I know all about medical experimentation. Do me a solid, and at least tell me you planned on using those on me, and not the helpless pregnant girl.”

“Theo, shut up!” Lydia hissed.

“No, no, I’m afraid he’s rather right, my dear. You  _ do  _ seem to be rather well informed, Theodore. One might even go so far as to say ‘suspiciously’ well-informed. Indeed, these tools are here for you, young sir. Although that doesn’t necessitate their usage. If you’ll simply give me the answers I’m looking for, we can keep the conversation civil, and none of those nasty things have to be used.”

Theo moved forward, his claws extending as he wrapped his hands around the bars of his cage, letting the yellow seep into his eyes.

“Guess we’ll have to get unpleasant then, won’t we?” He growled. “ ‘Cause I ain’t telling you  _ shit _ .”

He ignored the screaming voice in his head, telling him this was exactly what not to do, that he should be cooperating as much as possible to try and keep this man happy.

And normally, if it was just Theo alone in the lab, he might’ve tried it. Path of least resistance and all that. But with Lydia… He forced himself to meet Taylor’s eyes, letting a quiet growl loose. Him and Lydia needed to buy time, time for Scott and Stiles to find them. Because no matter what the man said, Theo didn’t believe for one second that Taylor was just going to ‘let them go’ when he finished with them. As long as they were curious, they were asking questions, and you can’t question dead people.

Taylor sighed. “I was afraid of that. Most of you wolves are a rather stubborn lot. I was hopeful, though. I won’t do you the discourtesy of threatening Lydia unless you tell me your secrets,” He added thoughtfully, almost as an afterthought, looking at Lydia with a gentle smile. “It’s not your fault he’s being uncooperative, my dear. Although… I’m afraid this is the only room capable of both holding a Banshee of your caliber, and giving me the space I need to do my work. If you like, I can arrange a covering for your cell.”

“How generous of you,” Lydia said haughtily. “If you really wanted to be generous, you could just let us go.”

Taylor shook his head. “Unfortunately that’s not an option. I’ll give you one last chance, Theodore, to do this pleasantly. Just tell me what you are, and how you came to be this way, and we can leave all these nasty instruments right where they are.”

“My name is fucking  _ Theo _ . And you can get fucked.”


	6. Chapter 6

“Scott. Scott!”

Scott slowed his pace, coming to a complete stop when he spotted Liam behind him, leaning against a tree, panting heavily.

“Liam, what are you doing?” Scott asked, his voice a mixture of concern and aggravation that he couldn’t quite hide.

Liam held up one finger and took a few deep breaths before speaking. “Scott… We’re halfway through the Plumas National Forest. We don’t even know if we’re headed the right direction.”

Scott started, taking a good look at his surroundings for the first time as Liam continued to speak.

“That scent we followed… It’s not Lydia’s or Theo’s,” His Beta said softly. “We’re running blind, and we’re running ragged. We just ran almost seventy miles in two hours.”

“What? No, we… That’s impossible,” Scott said in confusion. They hadn’t run that far, had they?

“Scott, I saw the sign for Bucks Lake a few miles back. We… we gotta head back, and hope everybody else came up with something useful. Because we struck out.”

Scott quickly forced down the snarl that threatened to tear free, trying to keep both himself, and his wolf under control as he felt his temper rising.

“Scott. Scott, you gotta get this under control,” Liam said softly, while taking a step back, although he kept his eyes locked just below Scott’s.

Which Scott appreciated; typically, he was able to keep the dominant side of his wolf under control, but with both halves of him panicking, he wasn’t sure he could’ve held it together if Liam had met his eyes -a direct challenge, or so the wolf side of him believed.

“Remember when Hayden left me? When her and her sister moved? I was a mess; you remember that? Like, I could barely keep it together. Theo helped keep me in check, and I owe him a lot; I probably would’ve killed someone if he hadn’t. I want him back just as much as you do.”

This time, Scott couldn’t help the growl, a deep, resonating sound that seemed to bounce throughout the forest, all other animals going deathly silent. Liam took another step back, holding his hands up anxiously.

“Alright, alright. We uh… we won’t talk about that. No worries. No talking about that,” Liam said, in that oddly endearing way, his pitch rising slightly, and hitching on the end. “We’ll just go back and see how everyone else is making out, yeah? Tell you what… You lead, and I’ll follow.”

Scott took another deep breath, hanging his head, and letting his eyes close as he struggled for control. He was in control; as Derek had told him, they were predators, not monsters. He controlled the wolf, not the other way around.

After what seemed like an eternity, he managed to shove the wolf down.

“Alright,” He said as gently as he could, as he took off in a slow trot back the direction they came. “You’re right. Just… stay behind me, alright?”

“No problem, boss man. You lead the way. I’d probably get lost in here anyways.”

Scott gave his Beta a smile, thankful in ways he couldn’t even verbalize for the kid. Liam was letting him have this; wasn’t pointing out that they both knew Scott wasn’t in control enough to have Liam lead. That Scott’s dominant side would get lost in the chase, and turn it into a hunt, with Liam as the weaker prey. He hated that he’d lost control that much, but no matter how hard he fought it, his wolf kept fighting him for control. 

As they started back towards Beacon Hills, Scott felt a surge of pride, mixed with a healthy dose of self-loathing. Liam had come a long way in getting his temper and his wolf under control; his Beta had channeled that aggression into healthier outlets, and he hadn’t had an ‘incident’ in months.

Which made it worse that he was now struggling so much with his own wolf. He wasn’t sure if his own upset and agitation was making it harder to control, or if this was part of being an Alpha who’d lost a member of his pack, or his feelings for Theo… But whatever it was, trying to keep control was as difficult as it had been during his first few full moons.

“Scott.”

Liam’s voice pulled Scott from his thoughts, and he turned, just in time to see Liam give him a small smile, clapping his hand on Scott’s shoulder.

“We’ll find them. Both of them. We won’t stop until we do.”

  
  
  


*******

 

Corey couldn’t help but notice the face  his boyfriend made as he came back into Mr. Argent’s study.

“What’s going on?” Corey asked softly. “Everything okay?”

Mason shook his head as he sat down on the opposite side of the desk. “That was Liam. They’re on their way back, but apparently he had to chase Scott down to Bucks Lake before he could get him to turn around. Liam says he’s barely containing his wolf right now.”

Not for the first time, Corey thanked whatever deity was listening that the Doctors hadn’t turned him into any sort of dominant creature. Other than the occasional camouflaging when something spooked him, he didn’t have any of the downsides —the temper, the dominant urge, the control issues —that the other shifters of the pack had.

“Stiles isn’t doing much better,” Mason continued on. “I ended up talking to Sheriff Stilinski after he broke down crying on the phone. Please,  _ please  _ tell me you found something.”

Corey shook his head sadly. “Nothing useful. I found Mr. Argent’s grandfather’s journal, and he mentioned the Lumen de Lumine, but there wasn’t anything more than what Mr. Argent told us. Actually, Mr. Argent had more information than the book did,” He said helplessly. “I haven’t found anything else yet.”

“Boys!” Mr. Argent’s voice came from back out in the main part of the bunker. “Think I’ve got something.”

Both Corey and Mason scurried out of the back room.

“What’d you find?” Mason asked excitedly, moving quickly over to the table Mr. Argent was leaning against.

“I called an old friend of mine. And by ‘old’ I mean ‘old’. Charlie’s gotta be pushing his mid-eighties now. He made some calls, and some Canadian hunters mentioned a place up by Penticton, British Columbia. According to the source, his grandfather had some sort of arrangement with a group of British Hunters: the Canadians let them keep a research lab up Okanagan Lake in return for medical care if they needed it.”

Corey frowned, biting his lip as he moved closer to the table. “That’s… kind of weak, isn’t it? I thought these guys were from Rome; wouldn’t that make them Italian? And, and, Scott and Liam followed that weird scent they found south into Plumas; that’s the opposite direction of Canada.”

He shrunk back as Mr. Argent turned to look at him. “Well, seeing as how no one else I’ve called has had any info, I’d say this is the best lead we have. Unless you found something?” When Corey shook his head quickly, Mr. Argent continued, “Good. Then we follow this. I put in a call to Derek -he’s going to try and meet us there, but he’s in North Dakota tracking a Wendigo. It’ll take him at least ten hours to get there, assuming he can get a flight into Calgary.”

“Uh… Mr. Argent, I think you’re forgetting that, other than me… None of the pack has passports,” Mason pointed out.

“I know a way across the border. But you two are staying here.”

“What?! Why?!” Mason demanded.

“Because you’re no good to us in a fight,” Mr. Argent said bluntly. “I could almost see an argument for Corey, but Mason… You would be absolutely useless to us in a fight. Hell, I’d keep Stiles behind if I could, but—”

“But I’d kill you if you tried,” Stiles said quietly, barely looking up from the chair he sat in.

Mr. Argent nodded. “Exactly. And the less people we have, the better. Just because I can get us across the border doesn’t mean I can bring a circus of people. Derek will meet us there, I’ll take Scott, Liam, and Stiles across with me.”

“Wait, you’re taking Liam?” Mason said angrily. “So—”

“Mason,” Corey interrupted quietly. “He’s right. Liam’s a werewolf; I’m a chameleon, and you’re human. We’d only slow them down.”

Mr. Argent watched Mason, waiting to see if he’d argue. When he didn’t, Mr. Argent nodded again. “Good. Then it’s settled. As soon as Scott and Liam get back, we’ll head out.”


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As always, large shout-outs to the amazing DemonzDust for beta'ing this, as well as the artwork. Amazing stuff, really, y'all should go check it out on Tumblr. :)
> 
>   
> 

“Stop it!” Lydia yelled, kicking at the bars of her cage. “Stop it, you’re killing him!”

Theo raised his head. Blood stained his teeth, lips, and chin, as he gave her a positively feral looking grin.

“You... kidding me, Lydia? These guys... are amateurs,” He rasped, before turning his attention back to Doctor Taylor and another man who’d come in a few hours ago. “Compared to... the other guys... these guys are a walk in... the park.”

Looking at the tubes and wires attached to him, Lydia seriously hoped he was exaggerating, although she was almost positive he wasn’t. The fact that he could say that, with his chest cut wide open, his ribs being held apart, and two men currently poking at his lungs spoke volumes.

The fact that he could speak at all, and wasn’t a gibbering mess was heart-breaking.

“Really now, Theodore, all of this is so unnecessary,” Doctor Taylor said sadly, as he leaned further in, and Lydia heard the sound of something scraping against bone. “We’re gathering all the information we want regardless of your shenanigans; you might as well just tell us.”

Theo made a wet, sucking sound, that Lydia was sure was supposed to be a laugh. “Well then... if it’s all the same, Doc... this was just starting to get good,” He wheezed. “How ‘bout… we try the… defleshing scalpel… next. I sort of… missed that one.”

Doctor Taylor shook his head, a look of pity on his face. “I’m not entirely sure what happened to you, my boy… But whoever so terribly mistreated you before this… I am  _ truly  _ sorry. I don’t wish to cause you any more harm; you’ve clearly been through enough.”

“Sure… you say that… now. After we’ve already… played pin the tail… on the lung.” He stopped for a moment, then grunted in pain. “Oops… Think you… cut an artery there… intern boy. You want me… alive… you better… better…”

“Theo! Theo!” Lydia screamed, watching as the Chimera’s eyes rolled back, and his head fell flat against the table.

“Dammit, Jacob! Get me the sutures! Now!” Doctor Taylor barked, as he reached back inside Theo’s chest with what looked like clamps. “Quickly, quickly!”

He grabbed the needle and thread from the boy, and dove back inside Theo’s chest, humming quietly to himself. After what seemed an eternity, he pulled out, swiping a hand across his forehead.

“Don’t worry, Lydia; I stopped the blood loss before it could be too severe,” He said conversationally. “Jacob, we’re done for today. Go tell Oliver I’ll be up after I get our guests settled.”

Lydia was shocked at the seeming gentleness as Taylor removed the bars holding Theo’s chest open, gently massaging at the skin as he pushed it back together. After a few minutes, Lydia could see Theo’s flesh start to knit itself back together, as Taylor undid the restraints holding him to the examination table. Then, again with almost exaggerated kindness, he gently lay Theo back in his cage.

“Well. I shall leave you two to recover for a bit; I’ll send Jacob back down with your dinner in a few hours. Protein for Theodore, and perhaps a hearty potato stew for you, Lydia. Unless of course your condition has left you unable to have lactose? I can arrange something else if you’d like.”

“What’s it matter?” Lydia asked quietly, unable to pull her gaze from Theo. “You’re just going to kill us anyways.”

“That’s not true, Lydia, and I have already told you that. I understand you might not want to eat right now —heaven knows, I have no appetite at the moment either —but you must keep up your strength for your baby.”

“So you can torture her too?” She demanded bitterly, sitting forward.

Taylor sighed, sitting down in an office chair, a look of exhaustion on his face. “Lydia… please, you must believe me: I didn’t want to do any of that. I certainly didn’t enjoy it.”

“Then why do it?”

“Because we are the light that keeps back the darkness; if we don’t know what’s out there, how can we possibly protect humanity from it?” He asked, his voice tinged with regret. “I understand that ‘the greater good’ argument looks ridiculous from your perspective right now. I don’t blame you for being angry. But whatever Theodore is, my job is to ensure that hundreds of other young men like him know how to safely capture and detain him. What I just did… It is a horrible thing, I won’t try to deny it. But the information that I gained here today could save dozens of others like him from overzealous Hunters who kill what they don’t understand.”

“All I know,” Lydia began slowly. “Is that you just took a boy— who was kidnapped and tortured by evil men for more than half his life— and did it again. You’re no different from the monsters you think we are. And when our pack comes for us -and trust me, they're already on their way- we’ll kill you, like we killed the people who hurt him as a child. Because our pack is more than just ‘werewolves’,” She said disdainfully. “So when our pack comes for us… When you hear them at your door… You should  _ run _ . You should run as fast as you can. Because if our Alpha doesn’t kill you, I’ll do it myself,” She finished quietly.

Doctor Taylor looked at her curiously for a moment, before nodding. “I do appreciate the warning, Lydia. Truly, I do. I must say though, after all our interactions over the past day and a half… I rather wish we’d captured your entire pack. It’s absolutely fascinating what young Mr. McCall has done, truly it is. The diversity amongst your pack would make for excellent study on interspecies dynamics. A werewolf pack with a True Alpha, a human FBI candidate, a Banshee, a werecoyote, one werewolf, and whatever Theodore is here… Honestly, I’ve never seen anything like it. That’s not even including Mr. Dunbar’s friends who are, at the very least, junior pack members. Or Christopher Argent, scion of one of the oldest, and most proud hunting families aside from our own. I think I’d like to meet Mr. McCall… He must be a fascinating young man.”

“Trust me… You won’t want to meet him after he sees what you’ve done to his friend.”

The man sighed. “Alright. Alright, I’ll leave you alone. I understand you’re angry, and we’re not going to accomplish anything like that. I’ll have the food brought to you as soon as I can. Hopefully Theodore is awake by then.”

Lydia waited until he was out of the room, before leaning as close as she could to Theo’s cage.

“Theo? Theo, can you hear me?”

Theo cracked open one eye, and gave her a small, tight smile. “You shouldn’t argue with ‘em, Lydia,” He said tiredly, dragging himself into a sitting position. “Can’t reason with people like this. Just gotta deal with it best you can.”

“How long were you conscious?”

“Dunno,” He said, grunting as he leaned back against the bars. “Long enough I guess. I uh… thanks for the uh… what you said…” He added awkwardly. “But you should just keep your mouth shut.”

Lydia, who’d been about to tell him she meant every word of what she said, instead quirked up an eyebrow. “Keep my  _ what _ , what?”

Theo rolled his eyes. “Not like _that_. Just… let ‘em stay focused on me. As long as they want questions answered, they’ll focus on me, and leave you alone.”

“Theo -”

“All I need to do is buy time ‘til Scott and Stiles get here,” He said shortly, cutting her off. “So just… let me handle it, alright?”

“Theo, they’re _torturing_ you!”

He stared at her blankly. “And? They’re gonna torture one of us anyways; might as well be me.”

“They shouldn’t be torturing  _ either  _ of us!”

“But they’re going to,” He said quietly, exhaustion clear in his voice. “That’s what people like this… it’s what they do, Lydia. You can’t stop them. They’re gonna do exactly what they want to do, and the most we can do is try to keep them focused on me.” At Lydia’s angry look, he gave her a small, tired grin. “Well, no offense to you, but at least we know I can take it and be okay.”

Lydia couldn’t help the tears in her eyes, as she reached her arm through the bars, getting as close to Theo’s cage as she could.

“No, Theo, you _can’t_ ,” She said desperately. “I know you _think_ you can, but you can’t.”

He stared at her, then her hand, his face carefully neutral for a moment. Then, he reached his own hand out, and grabbed hers, giving it a squeeze.

“It’ll be okay,” He said reassuringly, nodding at her. “I’ll keep them busy as long as I can. Scott and Stiles can’t be that far behind us.”

“Theo… Theo, you nearly  _ died _ .”

He shrugged, pulling his hand back. “If I do, I do. I don’t want to,” He added quickly. “But… Out of the two of us, we both know I deserve it. Just… do me a favor?”

“No,” She said firmly, pulling her own arm back, and folding them across her chest. “No, I won’t, because we’re both going to get out of her. You said it yourself, the Pack is already on its way.”

“But if they don’t make it in time -”

“They will.”

He rolled his eyes. “If they don’t, Lydia, I need you to tell Scott…” He hesitated a moment, chewing on his lip, as he maneuvered himself around the cage a bit, trying to get comfortable. Finally, he continued, “If I don’t make it out of here… Tell Scott that I uh… I did it because I wanted to.”

“Did… what?”

“I kissed him,” He said after a few moments of silence. “In Santa Barbara. I kissed him, and… He wouldn’t kiss me back, because he said he didn’t know if I actually meant it, or if I did it ‘cause I owed him’… And when he said it, it was like… I started doubting myself, you know? I’ve never really done the whole… you know… crush thing, I guess. Never really thought about people like that before. So when he said it, I just... I didn't know what to think. But uh… now that I’m probably gonna die down here… I just want him to know that… I did it because I _wanted_ to.”

Lydia gave him what she hoped was a reassuring smile. “You can tell him yourself, when he rescues us.” 

They settled into a comfortable silence —or as comfortable as it could be, given their circumstances. It was almost twenty minutes later that the door opened again, and Doctor Taylor walked in, a bowl of what looked like soup in his hands.

“What?” Lydia demanded, seeing the downcast look on his face. “What happened?”

The man sighed as he set the bowl down in front of Lydia’s cage, before going over to his chair, and practically falling into it.

“I’m sorry, Theodore. I truly am,” He said quietly. “I… If I had any say in the matter, I…” His voice trailed off, and he truly did look morose.

“Sorry for what? What matter?” Lydia asked, her voice rising. “What the hell is going on?”

“The lab… there are cameras in here, of course. You must understand, I didn’t want it to come to this, but… Now that they know…”

“Know what?” Theo asked quietly, his face neutral. “Why did you decide to be honest now?”

“Our director… He’s very old fashioned, you understand. Follows our beliefs to the letter. And since Theodore admitted his… proclivities… on camera… Well, I’ve been ordered to gather whatever information I can, as quickly as I can, and then… dispose of you.”

“His… what, because he likes _boys_?” Lydia asked shrilly. “You’ve got to be _joking_!”

Taylor winced, but nodded. “I’m… I’m so sorry, Theodore. I truly am. I… I wish it hadn’t come to this, but… Well, Jacob will be back in an hour or two, and then… Well. Lydia, I asked our director if we could have you moved to another location, but he… he refused. I’ve brought a pair of headphones, and a music player, so you won’t have to… So you won’t have to watch. I... “ He stood sharply, looking around the room again. “I’m sorry. I’ll be back when Jacob returns, and we’ll begin.”


	8. Chapter 8

Theo was well and truly fucked.

He’d lost count of how many incisions Taylor and his buddy had made, how many spreaders they’d used to keep those incisions open.

How many times they’d scraped shavings off his bones, how many biopsies they’d taken.

All he was really cognizant of was the dawning realization that his lightheadedness was due to blood loss.

Dimly, he could hear Lydia yelling and crying across the room; she’d tried screaming once, but Taylor had told her —rather regretful sounding —that they had hearing aids designed to stop the penetration of her scream.

He’d tried telling her it was okay, a few times. The last two times had come out as nothing more than garbled mush. The last time, he hadn’t even had the strength to pick his head up enough to look at her.

Something touched his hair, and he managed to crack open his eyes —although he hadn’t realized he’d closed them —enough to see Taylor gently running his fingers through his hair.

Part of him wanted to lean into it; the part that said he was going to die, and didn’t see the harm in taking what comfort he could.

But another part of him, one that had only been the smallest glimmer before last year, had him feebly trying to pull his head away; that part of him that said he had to buy time for the pack to find Lydia, at the very least. That part of him that knew if he accepted the gesture, it’d be a sign of defeat, and he wouldn’t last long after that.

He could feel the hand follow him, still trying to be soothing. A moment later, something happened to the table, and Taylor pulled his hand away, sharply. He said… something, Theo couldn’t make out what… to his assistant, who had suddenly gone pale.

The table shook, again. Taylor and the boy began scrambling, trying to grab things off the tool table.

_ Scott _ .

The thought hit him like a sledgehammer, cutting through the foggy haze. The table wasn’t  _ shaking _ , Scott’s roar was shaking the  _ entire building _ .

Coughing through the blood welling up in his mouth, Theo tried to roar back. The assistant’s hand slapped over his mouth, roughly, and Theo began choking on the blood he couldn’t spit out, trying to shake his head free. After a moment, the hand disappeared, and Theo gasped for air —something that only made him choke harder.

He felt, rather than heard, Lydia’s shriek reverberate through the room. It felt like knives ripping through his skull—something he’d actually felt before, which didn’t make the sensation any more pleasant.

 

“Scott, Stiles, go!” Chris barked, pointing down the hallway. “We’ll keep a path clear.”

Now that they were in the building, Scott could easily smell Theo and Lydia, picking up their unique scents even through the chemical smells that permeated everything. But he couldn’t quite put his finger on where the scent was coming from, other than a general ‘down’ direction.

“Scott!” Derek snapped, seeing his hesitation. “They’re pack! Call them!”

Liam gave him a reassuring nod, and Scott took a deep breath.

He roared. Loud, and long. After a few moments, Liam joined in, then Derek a few seconds later. Invigorated at the feeling of the building vibrating below his feet, Scott paused only long enough to draw a breath, and roared again.

It seemed like an eternity. It was probably less than twenty seconds. But he heard Lydia’s shriek, loud enough to make him cover his ear with one hand, even as he grabbed Stiles, and dragged him towards the noise.

It took them the longest one hundred and thirty-seven seconds of Scott’s life to go down three flights of stairs, down two hallways, and in front of the door. Although, to be fair, it didn’t really register as a ‘door’ until he was standing on it, staring at the scene in front of him.

Despite himself, Scott’s brain began to catalogue the room, even as he moved slowly towards Theo. Theo, who was strapped to the table, with dozens of cuts being held open by instrument he didn’t recognize, blood slowly pooling onto the floor beneath the table.

“Scott! Scott, don’t touch him!” Lydia yelled, and Scott froze, his hands hovering over Theo’s too still body. “You have to take the spreaders out so his body can heal, but if you yank them out, you’ll do more damage!”

“Scott, little help here?” Stiles demanded, yanking frantically on the padlock to Lydia’s cage.

As if in a fog, Scott moved towards the cage Lydia was in; the bars, though clearly meant to handle the supernatural, bent and broke under the strength of his Alpha anger.

In a dim sort of way, he felt bad for Stiles; he watched as his best friend tried to give Lydia a hug, tried pulling her into an embrace, only to be shoved back as the banshee ran towards Theo.

“Alright, Lydia… what do we do?” Scott asked, staring down at Theo’s mutilated body. He felt… almost distant from himself, as if it was someone else staring down at the table. As if someone else was looking to Lydia for guidance, and he was simply an observer, removed from the horror that his brain couldn’t quite process.

“They have notches, on the sides. Unnotch them, and it eases the tension holding them apart,” She said quickly, demonstrating on one in Theo’s upper chest as she spoke. “Stiles!”

Stiles was standing by the cage, looking paler than normal, his face contorted. “Uh, no thanks, I’ll uh… I’ll just wait… over here. Thanks.”

“Stiles!” She snapped. “Get over here, and help us!”

“Oh, God,” He moaned, moving over towards them. “This is like… seriously traumatic. I’m gonna need years of therapy…”

Scott tuned him out, trying to focus on the dozens of ‘spreaders’ holding Theo’s insides open. Carefully, he unnotched one, like he’d seen Lydia do.

“Alright, try to push the skin back together; Taylor did that, it seemed to make him heal faster,” Lydia ordered, demonstrating as she spoke on the open wound in Theo’s chest.

He began copying her, but his hands froze as Theo coughed, and before he could stop himself, he’d moved around to Theo’s head.

“Theo? Theo, can you hear me?!”

A quiet, pained grunt was the only verbal response, but Scott felt his heart leap when Theo cracked open one eye.

“Hey, it’s alright. I got you, we’re gonna get you outta here.” Scott said soothingly, trying to catch Theo’s gaze. “Just hang on, alright?

Reinvigorated, Scott began working on the cuts again, massaging the wounds as he watched them slowly knit themselves back together.

Most of them were closed over, or at least mostly closed over, when Theo began trying to pull himself into an upright position. Instantly, Scott wrapped his arm around his waist, and helped him to his feet.

“I got you.”

“M’a be fin.”

 

Theo flinched at his garbled words, before he felt his stomach heave. Struggling to free himself from Scott’s death grip, he leaned over, and hurled. His vision was still a bit blurry, but even he could tell there was a startling amount of red in the pile of liquid on the floor.

“Theo!”

It felt like a thousand drills being driven into him as Scott grabbed him around his back, and pulled him to his feet. But try as he might, Theo couldn’t make his legs stay under him.

“Scott, stop!” Lydia’s voice was almost distant. “You’re hurting him!”

“Lyd, we don’t have time,” Stiles’ voice came from somewhere off to his left. “Scott, we’ve gotta get outta here.”

“Theo… I’m sorry, but Stiles is right. We gotta get outta here.”

A moment later, he struggled to bite back the scream, as he felt Scott pick him up, cradling him in his arms. Each step sent a wave of nausea through him, as he tried to keep as quiet as possible. He could feel some of the pain ebbing away as Scott tried to take his pain, but it was like taking a bucket of water from the ocean.

As his vision started going dark again, he faintly heard Liam yelling.

Then it all went black.


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow. It's been a few months since I started this, but here we are. The final chapter of Part 2.
> 
> I know I haven't been reliable lately -in posting, or answering comments. I won't lie, and promise I'll do better, because with my work schedule right now, that's simply not something I can guarantee with any degree of certainty.
> 
> For those who are interested in continuing though, I do plan on hopefully having the first chapter of Part 3 up within two weeks. My plan for it is to be entirely from outside Theo's P.O.V., with only small doses of Scott's P.O.V., mostly told through those watching and observing them. It will delve more into the psychological aspects of someone as broken as Theo trying to be in a semi-functional relationship. It will be more emotional angst and drama than the previous two, with no real antagonist. It will pick up two months where this one leaves off.
> 
> As always, I couldn't do this without my awesome beta, DemonzDust -not only does she rein in my overuse of commas, run-on sentences, and general editing, but she also works as a pseudo-sounding board. I highly recommend her stories, 'What Should Have Been Ours', 'Memoriae Fractum', and 'The Call' -all her stories are pretty amazing, but those three are my favorites. In fact, her stories are what inspired me to write this series in the first place.

Two Days Later

“How is he?”

Scott blinked in surprise, glancing up at his mom. “Huh? What time is it?” He asked, trying and failing to stifle a yawn.

“Almost eight. Liam and the others just left to get ready for school,” Melissa said softly, handing him a cup of coffee. “Stiles called a few hours ago; he said Lydia’s still sleeping a lot, but she’s doing okay.”

“Oh. Good,” Scott said, a flash of guilt running through him as he took a large swig of the coffee. He hadn’t even thought to call Stiles and check in on Lydia.

He glanced over at the occupied bed, and almost immediately, the feeling of guilt over Lydia was replaced by an entirely different sort of guilt.

Theo had regained back most of his color, no longer the pale, almost paper white color he’d been when Scott had first pulled him off the operating table. But although the skin had closed around the incisions, the large, ugly red marks were still fully visible. His body wasn’t healing like it should. Deaton had said it was too be expected. That it was a miracle he’d survived at all, given the amount of damage.

His body was healing what it considered to be the most severe injuries, the damage to his organs, veins —internal damage —and leaving the ‘less’ severe damage for later. While the vet had given Melissa some medicine to help, he’d warned Scott and Melissa both that the chimeras’ genetics were still mostly unknown; that despite the testing he’d done, so far, Corey and Theo were still genetic anomalies. There was no telling which medicine would have what effect.

Scott had been the one to make the call to leave it be; to let Theo’s body have a chance to heal on its own.

As the minutes turned to hours, and the hours into two days, he’d regretted the decision more and more. Every few hours, he’d hear Theo’s heartbeat increase erratically; while he knew the chimera was having a nightmare, Theo never showed any signs beyond the heartbeat.

Scott had tried holding his hand once; his heartbeat had shot through the roof, and he’d made a small whimper that nearly broke Scott’s heart.

“He’s gonna be fine, honey,” Melissa said quietly, laying a gentle hand on his shoulder, and pulling him from his thoughts. “He’s just healing; Deaton said it would be a few days.”

“And then what?” Scott asked, unable to keep the hopelessness from his voice. “I… he was starting to… to get better. He was actually… like, happy. Then all this…

“You know what he said to me in Santa Barbara? That the whole point of torturing someone is to break them into as many pieces as possible; that way, even when somebody puts them back together, they’re ugly and broken. That’s what he thinks he is, mom. An ugly, broken monster. And just when we start to show him that he’s not, that he’s worth so much more than how they treated him… this happens. Like, I wanted to give him a normal life, you know? Show him that he could be normal.”

Melissa sighed as she kneeled down in front of him. “I know, Scott. But he still can. You know that,” She said firmly. “He’ll recover from this like he did the Doctors. Theo is strong; stronger than he realizes. It’ll be okay.”

“Will it? He had a point, mom… How many times can a kid literally be sliced open? How many times can someone stand watching a person play with their insides? It just… it should’ve been me,” He said desperately. “If I hadn’t left to get groceries… I could’ve kept him safe.”

“Scott, it shouldn’t have been you. It shouldn’t have been anyone. You could spend your whole life thinking ‘maybe’ and ‘what if’. It doesn’t matter; what’s done is done. And you know what? Theo will come back from this too. He kept Lydia safe, and bought you time to save them both. Lydia told Stiles, Theo knew you were coming to get him. He knew that you wouldn’t stop until you found him. That means, probably for the first time in his life… Theo knew someone cared enough to rescue him. That someone was going to save him.”

Scott managed to give her a small smile. “I know… I just… It’s not fair, you know?”

Melissa chuckled sadly as she stood. “Life is never fair, Scott. We just have to deal with it as best we can. You want something to eat?”

Scott started to nod, before a faint uptick in Theo’s heart beat left him shaking his head. “I’m good. Thanks, mom.” He waited until he heard her footsteps downstairs, before he stood, making his way over to the bed, and sitting down on the edge. “How you feeling?”

Theo opened his eyes, giving him a weak impression of his normal smile. “Like hell. How long?”

“Two days. We found you Sunday night; it’s Wednesday morning,” Scott said softly, returning his smile.

Theo grunted, rolling over onto his side, before trying to push himself up into a sitting position.

“Woah, take it easy,” Scott said, moving to push him back down. But Theo flinched, his entire body tensing as he drew away. Immediately, Scott pulled his hands back, but kept his voice firm as he spoke. “Theo, you’re still healing. Your body took a hell of a beating, and it’s gonna take a while for you to get back to a hundred percent.”

Theo took a deep breath, before nodding as he laid back down. He remained on his side, however.

“How’s Lydia? Her and the baby okay?” He asked, propping one arm up under his head.

“Yeah. Yeah, Stiles took Lydia to the hospital as soon as we got back; both her and Allison are fine. Thanks to you,” Scott added. “She told us you kept them focused on you.”

Theo shifted uncomfortably. “Not really. They didn’t know what I was, so they wanted information. They were surprised that the wolf’s bane didn’t work as well on me as they thought it would. Did you find any of them?”

Scott shook his head. “No, the place was pretty… it was pretty well-guarded. Derek, Chris, and Liam managed to hold them off while Stiles and me found you and Lydia, but… We hightailed it out as soon as we saw how —once we had you guys safe,” He stopped himself from saying ‘how hurt you were’. “Derek and Chris went back later, but it looks like they’d cleared out. Derek, Liam, and the sheriff have been keeping on an eye on Lydia; Chris and me have been watching things here. But they haven’t shown up,” He finished. “We’re uh… we haven’t really talked about where to go from here; we were waiting for you to wake up.”

“Yeah, well. I’m awake. So what’re we gonna do? Argent think they’re just gonna give up? Go home?”

“Honestly… I don’t know,” Scott admitted. “Hadn’t really thought about it. Was more worried about you.”

“Yeah, uh… I’m fine. You said it yourself, I’m healing, right? That doc— that guy, Taylor, he was interested in the pack. Real interested. I wouldn’t put it past him to circle back around, and try and take everyone. He knows about Liam, and Argent, and Malia… He doesn’t know what Corey is, but the way he talked, he knows Corey and Mason are part of the pack,” Theo said quietly. “He knows too much, and… he’s… he’s a scientist, Scott. He’s not…”

“Theo, it’s alright,” Scott said softly, only monumental restraint keeping him from reaching his hand out to try and comfort Theo. “We don’t have to talk about this right now, okay?”

“No! No, I… Scott, you don’t… You don’t understand people like Taylor, and the —” He growled, in frustration or emotional agony, Scott couldn’t be sure. “Scott, they don’t, they don’t do…  _ what they did _ because they want to, or because they enjoy it, or, or, or anything like that. It’s because they have to  _ know _ . They’re like… they’re like a kid with a toolset. They do what they do because they’re curious. The person they hurt? They don’t see it as a person, Scott, they see it as a  _ lab rat _ . Something they want to dissect, and run experiments on, and—and poke to see what makes it twitch. Somebody like Taylor… Scott, he’s not just gonna give up. He’s a cat with a mouse, and he’s not just gonna give up and go home. He won’t,” He finished abruptly.  “He can’t.”

“Alright, Theo,” Scott said soothingly. “We’ll figure it out, okay? But right now… Theo, you just woke up. And we haven’t even talked about… what you heard me and my mom talking about,” Scott said hesitantly.

“I just caught the tail end of it. Just… her asking if you were hungry,” Theo said uncomfortably. “That’s it.”

“Theo—”

“Scott, let’s… let’s just not, okay? It doesn’t matter. We’re okay.”

“No, we’re not,” Scott said firmly. “Not only is none of… this…” he waved his hands around to encompass the whole messed up situation. “...okay. But even… even beyond that, Theo, I don’t… I don’t think we’re okay either,” He said softly.

Immediately, he regretted his word choice, as Theo tensed up, just for a moment, before the Chimera nodded.

“Alright. I can uh… I’ve still got my truck, I can stay there until I figure something else out, I guess,” Theo said woodenly.

“No! Theo, that’s not what I meant. At _ all _ ,” Scott said emphatically. “What I mean is… Theo, I —when you were gone, I realized… I know it’s gonna sound weird, but it was like… Like I’d lost an arm or something. All I could think about was that if what I said to you in Santa Barbara was the last thing I said to you? That I didn’t know if you actually wanted to be with me, or… Theo, listen, I was… I’m not gonna say I was wrong to be worried about that, but the whole time you were gone, all I could think was, what if I never got you back? What if we never had a chance, because I was too worried about whether or not you could make your own decisions?

“And sure, I get I’m probably being really selfish here, that… that this is a lot to just throw at you right now, but I just…” He took a deep breath. “Theo, I need you to know that, when you’re ready, when we’ve worked all this out, I want us —if you’re comfortable —to be more.”

Theo stared at him, his face blank, for what seemed an eternity. Finally, the edges of his lips quirked up in a small, almost sad smile. “Scott, I… I’d like that too, but… I just need you to know that you’re right. What you said to your mom,” He explained softly, at Scott’s confused look. “I’m damaged, Scott, and I don’t know if I’ll ever  _ not  _ be damaged. I’m never gonna be the guy who cuddles, or enjoys walking on the beach or… Scott, I’m never gonna be  _ normal _ .”

“Theo, I don’t want normal,” Scott said firmly. “As dumb as it may sound, I— I want  _ you _ . I didn’t realize just how much you were a part of my life until you weren’t there anymore; when you were kidnapped, everything just felt… wrong. Like everything was off-balance, and I couldn’t focus. Hell, I could barely keep my wolf under control.

“And guess what, Theo? I’m not normal either; I’m a True Alpha; my life is always going to be one disaster or another. My life is  _ never  _ going to be normal. But you know what? That’s okay. I don’t need to be ‘normal’ to be happy. I didn’t realize how much I depended on you, how much I  _ needed  _ you, because it was all just so… natural. I don’t know when I stopped being able to function without you, but the truth is, I can’t. The whole time you were missing, all I could focus on was getting you back.

“I’m never gonna be the guy who goes for walks on the beach either; we go on a date, we’re probably gonna have to put it on hold to go deal with some mythological creature from the land of the dead coming to haunt us, or hunters chasing us down, or another werewolf pack trying to take us out. But I’m okay with that as long as you’re with me,” Scott finished slowly. After a moment, he pushed himself to his feet with a sigh. “I get that this is all a lot to deal with right now. I don’t need an answer, or anything. I just… I need you to know how I feel.”

Scott pushed himself up off the bed, glancing down at Theo. “I’ll uh… I’ll leave you alone for a bit, I guess.”

As he moved towards the door, he heard Theo speak.

“Scott, I… could you… could you stay?”

When he turned, Theo was staring at the wall, chewing on his bottom lip. The smell of salt faintly tickled Scott’s nose, and he realized that Theo’s eyes were glistening with unshed tears.

“Yeah. Yeah, I’ll stay as long as you want me to,” Scott said softly, moving back towards his chair.

“No, I… I’ll probably… I get… While I was unconscious, I kept having… nightmares,” Theo finally said, his face reddening, in what Scott presumed to be embarrassment. “I… I get them most nights, and… I don’t want to be alone.”

Scott nodded, and moved towards the bed, and settled down, on the opposite side of the bed. His heart nearly broke as he watched Theo start to move towards him, before stiffening, and pulling back to the far edge.

“Scott, I -” Theo’s voice cut off sharply, and the Chimera closed his eyes for a moment, before staring at the wall again. His voice was steadier when he spoke again. “I… Not too close, okay?”

Scott merely nodded again. “Whatever you want, Theo.  I’ll be right here.”


End file.
